Endnotes:

[1] Alberty, Erin. “Book banning activists target Little Free Libraries in Utah.” Axios Salt Lake City, Oct. 4, 2024. https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2024/10/04/book-ban-little-free-libraries-utah

R
ay Bradbury’s iconic dystopian work Fahrenheit 451 offers compelling insights into today’s epidemic of book banning. The progression of events within the text parallels how this scourge of book bans has unfolded. And, the predictive nature of Bradbury’s observations makes the correlations between them all the more captivating.

The work’s opening lines makes it immediately clear that we’re enmeshed in a nightmare scenario:

It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things
eaten, to see things blackened and changed.[1]

This opening passage continues with Montag – Bradbury’s fireman protagonist – holding the brass nozzle of a firehose in his fists:

With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.[2]

Given that firemen are civil service employees, combined with the fact that this work was originally published during the McCarthy era, it’s easy to see why Fahrenheit 451 is frequently considered a criticism of government censorship.

But, according to Bradbury himself, it isn’t. As Bradbury famously noted:

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.[3]

Bradbury was no fan of censorship, to be sure.  The scathing coda added to Fahrenheit 451 in 1979 makes that perfectly clear. But, the work itself is a study of how the dystopian society Montag lives in arrived at the point where the government inserted itself, and firemen no longer extinguish fires but set books ablaze.

Montag’s Enlightenment

On his way home from the book burning described in the opening passage, Montag meets a young woman named Clarisse McClellan, who turns out to be his new neighbor. Not surprisingly, Clarisse embodies the essence of her name – brightness, radiance, and brilliance.[4] And, it’s this encounter that sets Montag’s enlightenment and subsequent transformation in motion.

Cutting right through Montag’s mundane small talk, Clarisse gets directly to the point:

Have you ever watched the jet cars racing on the boulevards down that way?”

I sometimes think drivers don’t know what grass is, or flowers, because they never see them slowly,” she said. “If you showed a driver a green blur, Oh yes! he’d say, that’s grass! A pink blur? That’s a rose-garden! White blurs are houses. Brown blurs are cows. My uncle drove slowly on a highway once. He drove forty miles an hour and they jailed him for two days. Isn’t that funny, and sad, too?”

You think too many things,” said Montag, uneasily.[5]

The point Clarisse makes revolves around people’s lack of attention to the world they live in, and the dearth of understanding such shallowness creates.

Clarisse’s remarks also apply to how we read

Clarisse’s observation parallels the way far too many of us read. The first thing we notice about a book is its plot. And who doesn’t enjoy reading about a couple guys on a cross-country rager (as in Kerouac’s On the Road), or a spooky old haunted mansion with an ancestral curse (a la Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables).

Hermann Hesse describes this type of reader as “naïve.”[6] They relate to books like a horse to its driver: the book leads, and the reader simply follows. The book’s substance is accepted without question.

There’s a world of difference, however, between knowing what a sentence says and what it means. Most people are naïve readers, who make their way through a book by simply processing the text on the page. They follow the dotted line from one plot point to the next and, by the end, walk away with a general grasp of what happened in the story – but nothing more. Their understanding of the book they just read is the equivalent of the “blur” experienced by the drivers of Bradbury’s jetcars.

Up until recently a significant number of book challenges stemmed, quite simply, from shallow reading. For example, early challenges to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye came from parents who essentially charged that Holden Caulfield sets a bad example for teen-age readers, that teenagers shouldn’t behave like Holden does.[7]

What is ironic to the point of frustration is that, when engaged at a level beyond simple plot, it’s obvious that Salinger is actually making these parents’ point for them – this isn’t acceptable teenage behavior, to be sure. But clearly, none of the challengers has engaged the work at a level that prompts them to ask why Holden acts the way he does… or at an even deeper level that would elicit the question, “what is Salinger actually writing about?”

When read merely for plot, The Catcher in the Rye appears to be nothing more than the story of a teenage boy having trouble transitioning to adulthood. However, the inappropriate behavior Holden Caulfield engages in and the way he expresses himself have a rhetorical purpose. When read accordingly, it becomes apparent that these behaviors are a response to the shifting societal landscape Salinger sees in postwar America.

Holden is grappling with the same kinds of questions the challengers’ own children are facing. Holden Caulfield is not, in fact, intended to be a role model. When the reader sees the proverbial blades of grass, individual roses in the garden, and actual cows rather than blurs of color, it is clear that Salinger’s work is about much more than the antics of a rebellious teenager.

What does Clarisse’s uncle have to do
with standardized testing in schools?

Clarisse’s anecdote about her uncle being jailed for driving slowly parallels the way standardized testing in schools obliges educators to focus on reading comprehension skills rather than knowledge-building, or critical thinking.[8]

It’s interesting to note that Montag’s response to Clarisse’s pairing of observations about experiencing the world at a cursory level with a story referring to consequences resulting from slowing down and fully engaging is, “You think too many things.”[9]

Clarisse also points out that Montag consistently gives pat, unconsidered responses to her questions – “you never stop to think what I’ve asked you.”[10]

It’s a thought-provoking exchange. Because, as educator Randi Weingarten points out:

Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn’t measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity…[11]

Social studies curriculum professor, Lisa Gilbert’s comment continues this line of thinking:

What policymakers in many states also fail to understand, is how much standardized testing has shifted our students toward the need to feel certain about things — whereas our lives in this world are filled with ambiguity. [12]

And, literature reflects this ambiguity. But, teaching for standardized testing conditions readers to overlook the bulk of a work, which as with icebergs lies beneath the surface. So, important considerations about a book – like historical context, the author’s life experience, or how the meaning of words and phrases can change – get missed.

Such cursory engagement leaves students with empty husks of the books they’re reading. They may know what the book in question says, but are left not understanding what it means. How it addresses the ambiguity of life. What it actually has to say. Which in turn, perpetuates the type of book challenge mentioned above, one that is the product of shallow reading habits.

The Rise in Disregard for the Humanities.

Not too long after Montag’s encounter with Clarisse, it becomes apparent to the chief of his station that something is amiss with him. So, in an effort to get Montag back in line, Captain Beatty dresses him down with a lecture on the history of their profession.

At one point during Captain Beatty’s admonition, Montag inquires about Clarisse and her disappearance. And, Beatty’s response reflects the rapid rise in disregard for the Humanities.

His rejoinder to Montag’s inquiry is “you can’t rid yourselves of all the odd ducks in just a few years.” Beatty sees Clarisse as a dangerous “odd duck” because “she didn’t want to know how a thing was done, but why.” [13] 

As Beatty states, he knows how to nip independent thought like Clarisse’s in the bud:

You can’t build a house without nails and wood. If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. [14] 

And, the nails and wood Beatty is referring to are an education that fosters critical thinking. Beatty’s recipe for thwarting independent thought like Clarisse exhibited?

Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely `brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change. Don’t give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with.
 [15] 

And we’ve seen this attitude reflected in the number of Arts programs that have been slashed, the number of Liberal Arts colleges that have shuttered, and the decline in Humanities degrees conferred generally.[16]

No Child Left Behind and the Common Core State Standards have pushed k-12 educators to prioritize science and math over other subjects.
[17] 

According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Humanities’ share of bachelor’s degrees conferred is at its smallest number since a complete accounting of Humanities degrees first became possible, in 1987.
[18]

Though it seems paradoxical, even Albert Einstein championed a liberal arts education, advocating that it – rather than the acquisition of special knowledge –  be at the forefront of education.  Einstein sums up this contention by asserting that those whose education is limited to specialized knowledge “more closely resemble a well-trained dog” than a well-rounded individual.
[19]

Only happy books are allowed

As is apparent by his remarks about Clarisse, the core message of Captain Beatty’s  harangue is clearly that people should amble through life, unthinking, untested, and mollified. The following passage constitutes the cornerstone of his menacing discourse:

Ask yourself, What do we want in this country, above all? People want to be happy, isn’t that right? Haven’t you heard it all your life? I want to be happy, people say. Well, aren’t they? Don’t we keep them moving, don’t we give them fun? That’s all we live for, isn’t it? For pleasure, for titillation? And you must admit our culture provides plenty of these.[20]

And, there are indeed books that have been banned because they aren’t upbeat enough. Here are a few examples:

• Alabama school board challenged The Diary of Anne Frank because, it was “a real downer.”[21]
  .
• The St. Helens, Oregon school board banned The House on Mango Street from middle-school curriculum, expressing “concerns for the social issues presented.”[22]
  .
• A group of community members and clergy in Mobile, Alabama called for local school officials to form a special textbook screening committee. And, Of Mice and Men was targeted for “morbid and depressing themes.”[23]

But, doesn’t Captain Beatty have a point? Don’t we all want to be happy? Don’t most parents want their children to be happy? What’s so wrong with only reading books that make us happy? What else is literature for, but to entertain us?

H. G. Wells’ 1912 essay The Contemporary Novel, addresses this very question. And Wells’ answer?

And this is where the value and opportunity of the modern novel come in. So far as I can see, it is the only medium through which we can discuss the great majority of the problems which are being raised in such bristling multitude by our contemporary social development.[24]

Toni Morrison also weighs in on the value of writers and the books they produce:

Certain kinds of trauma visited on peoples are so deep, so cruel, that unlike
money, unlike vengeance, even unlike justice, or rights, or the goodwill of others, only writers can translate such trauma and turn sorrow into meaning, sharpening the moral imagination.

A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.[25]

As Wells and Morrison make clear, the world isn’t always a happy place. And, books help us deal with that world.

But, what actually happens when adolescents read disturbing books? Well…  literary scholars Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston have studied this, and here’s what they learned. The students they interviewed, most of whom said they previously read little or nothing, “started reading like crazy” both in and out of school. And, their reading achievement improved. They also reported improved self-control, as well as developing more, and stronger, friendships and family relationships. Students also reported being “happier. Yes, happier.”[26]

Take that, Captain Beatty! 

Sanitizing literary works

On the surface, sanitizing literary works appears to be a reasonable compromise strategy. It seems to allow us to talk about issues like those Wells and Morrison point out, while also addressing Captain Beatty’s observations about sensitivity to particular demographics:

Don’t step on the toes of the dog lovers, the cat lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that![27]

But does sanitizing really serve as a viable trade-off? What happens when we cleanse texts? Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one victim of such sanitizing.

Folklorist Patricia A. Turner traces the unfortunate transformation of the Tom character from Christ figure to racial slur. Stowe wrote Tom as a figure who refuses to reveal where two enslaved women who had been sexually abused by their enslaver are hiding. Tom knows he’ll be beaten to death for not selling them out. Yet he remains defiant, refusing to say where they are. It’s the polar opposite of what that character has come to mean.

Stowe faced an incredible amount of criticism from the apologists for slavery. And according to Turner, in an effort to sell tickets, producers of the early stage shows catered to the sensitivity of these slavery apologists.  They revised the image of slavery Stowe had depicted and characterized Uncle Tom in minstrel fashion – rendering him the weak, subservient figure that continues to be associated with his name.

But, deciding not to sanitize books isn’t just about saving the reputation of literary works. A 2011 episode of The Daily Show addresses the real problem with expurgating literature. Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore are discussing a recent re-issue of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one where every instance of the n-word was replaced with the word “slave.”

Playing devil’s advocate, Stewart suggested that the new edits make the book less “uncomfortable.”  Wilmore’s response hits the mark:

Look, Mark Twain put that word in for a reason. The n-word speaks to a society that casually dehumanized black people. Slave was just a job description. And it’s not even accurate — in the book Jim is no longer a slave, he ran away. Twain’s point is that he can’t run away from being a n—-r.“[28]

And, Twain’s point (interpreted by Wilmore) remains relevant today. But, we never have a conversation about that if everyone feels OK with Jim’s situation – the attitude easily becomes “institutional slavery no longer exists, so everything’s fine.” Huck Finn is watered down to become a story about a boy’s adventures on the river, rather than the social commentary it was intended to be.

As social critic and educator bell hooks reminds us:

Oppression is insidious; if we pretend it does not exist, that we do not see it or know how to change it, then the oppression never has to go away… Denial permits us to be complicit.[29]

The slippery slope to anti-intellectualism

Captain Beatty points out another problem that develops when we sanitize literature, one consistent with Bradbury’s own experience with expurgated texts and compounded by the current disregard for a liberal arts education:

Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics said, were dishwater.[30]

Ironically, Fahrenheit 451 was itself sanitized for high school students’ consumption. More than 75 passages were modified, eliminating words like damn, and hell, as well as the mention of abortion.

Two incidents within the text were also removed. In the first, a drunk man was changed to being a sick man. The second instance refers to cleaning fluff out of the human navel, and was changed to cleaning ears.

A friend alerted Bradbury to the expurgation of his work, and not surprisingly, he promptly demanded that the publisher withdraw the sanitized version and replace it with his original.[31]

In Fahrenheit 451’s coda, Bradbury notes how one of his short stories had been edited for an anthology. He doesn’t pull any punches when addressing such editing/ cleansing of literary works:

Skin, debone, demarow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito – out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron’s mouth twitch – gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer – lost!

Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like – in the finale – Edgar Guest.[32] Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant’s attention – shot dead.[33]

And what are the long-term repercussions of a diet of such pablum? The rise of anti-intellectualism. As Captain Beatty puts it, “the word intellectual, of course,” became a “swear word.”[234]

Beatty refers to the exceptional student who answered the most questions while so many others sat like “leaden idols hating him.”[35] And, it was this “bright boy” who was “selected for beatings and tortures after hours.”[36]

The captain’s diatribe lays out what happens when anti-intellectualism is on the rise:

Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man’s mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? I won’t stomach them for a minute.[37]

This passage reflects the harassment, doxxing, and even violent threats suffered by teachers and librarians. Those whose jobs revolve around study and reflection have been vilified, characterized as pedophiles and accused of grooming children.

Here are just a few examples:

Associate professor of Library and Information Science Natalie Cooke’s email address and phone number were circulated among hate groups and their followers… and the harassment that followed was every bit as bad as you would imagine.[38]

Amanda Jones, who heads the board of the Louisiana Association for School Librarians, found a death threat in her email about a month after she spoke out against censorship at a public library. And she would get many more.

But, the one that rattled her most was from a man only four hours away from where she lived. And, “It was pretty explicit in the ways that he was going to kill me,” Jones said. “I was actually petrified.”[39]

And, Maegan Hanson, a library director in a small Idaho town, reports, “We had people threatening to burn down our building.”[40]

Like the “bright boy” in Beatty’s anecdote, individuals whose careers revolve around reading and intellectual activities have ended up with targets on their backs – and not necessarily the metaphoric variety.

Silencing stories about diversity

Captain Beatty also contends, conditions become such that “You always dread the unfamiliar.”[341 He further states, “We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal like the constitution says…”[42] So, stories reflecting diversity are silenced.

As author George M. Johnson notes:

The curriculum that is being taught in most school systems is still heavily geared towards the straight, white, male teen,” Johnson says. “And so when we now have the ability to put books into curriculum that tell other stories, that tell stories that are non-white, that tell stories that are non-heterosexual, they’re trying to take them out across the board because, you know, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, how dangerous would it be if young white teens had to actually learn about the other people who exist in society with them?’[43]

Black literature

Black literature has long been the target of coordinated censorship efforts, spanning at least back to the Harlem Renaissance. But, as a result of the current mania revolving around Critical Race Theory – which is engendered by groups like No Left Turn in Education – the number of banned books featuring prominent characters that are Black has skyrocketed. Along with works written by Black authors. And those that tell stories from a Black perspective.[44] Here are just a few examples:

• Newbery Medal Winner New Kid by Jerry Craft is one such book.[45] New Kid is a graphic novel about relocating to a new school where diversity is low.
  .
• Then there’s Toni Morrison’s Beloved, which has faced widespread bans due to its depiction of slavery, not to mention the way it addresses other dark moments in American history.[46]
  .
• And, let’s not forget The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, the book that ignited the anti-Critical Race Theory frenzy.[47] Jones’ work reframes American history by putting slavery and its legacy at the center of our national narrative. 

LGBTQ+ literature

As with Black literature, opposition to LGBTQ books is not a new phenomenon in America. But the current wave is unprecedented in scope and scale.

According to American Library Association data, from the 2000s to the early 2010s, LGBTQ+ books were the target of between less than 1 – 3 percent of all challenges filed in schools. In 2022, however, that number had surged to 45.5 percent.

Founding chairman of Moms for Liberty, Jennifer Pippin, cites concern over sexually explicit material as the reason for challenges to LGBTQ+ books rather than homophobia. However, over one-third of the challenges to LGBTQ+ titles are simply because they feature LGBTQ+ lives or stories.[48]

A few examples of banned LGBTQ+ literature are:

• All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson chronicles their childhood, adolescence, and college years as a queer Black youth. Johnson’s work explores subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy. It’s frequently challenged for LGBTQ+ content, and claims of sexual explicitness.[49]
  .
• Then there’s This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson. This Book Is Gay is a non-fiction book utilizing Dawson’s experience as a PSHE co-ordinator (Personal, Social and Health Education), Dawson offers basic information about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience. Frequently claimed to be pornography, it was also the subject of bomb threats sent to the Hilton Central School District in New York.[50]
  .
• There’s also Maia Kobabe’s book Gender Queer: A Memoir. Kobabe (who uses e/em/eir pronouns) charts eir journey of self-identity. But, this work is more than a personal story: it’s a useful and touching guide to gender identity for advocates, friends, and, basically, humans everywhere. It too is regularly challenged for LGBTQ+ content, and claimed to be sexually explicit.[51]

Unfortunately, there are maaaany more books on the list of works about diversity that have been silenced. And, once again, Toni Morrison alerts us to why it’s not only important for these stories to be told, but for us to keep fighting against bans of books like these. And, that’s because:

Unpersecuted, unjailed, unharassed writers are trouble for the ignorant bully, the sly racist...[52]

Societal energy is re-directed

Interestingly, it was a turn of events completely unrelated to books that kicked things into high gear. In Montag’s society it was: 

when houses were finally fireproofed completely, all over the world… there was no longer need of firemen for the old purposes. They were given the new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior: official censors, judges and executors.[53]

When it comes to our current epidemic of book banning, COVID-19 was the match that set things ablaze. Anger about mask mandates and school closures was quickly harnessed and re-directed toward books that banners claim clash with conservative values – which ultimately includes teachings about gender, race, social justice, and history.[54]

School board races had typically been friendly, and uneventful, with little money involved. But that was about to change, primarily due to the influence of conservative political organizations like the Family Heritage Alliance, the Free Republic Political Action Committee, Moms for Liberty (which has 300 chapters in 48 states), and the aforementioned No Left Turn in Education.[55]

There are at least 50 such groups in total advocating for bans in K-12 schools.[56] These political organizations are well-funded, and operate at the national, state, and local levels. What had traditionally been local contests became the targets of a handful of national conservative groups, who are pouring money into local school board races.[57]

Only 11 people are responsible for 60% of book challenges.

A Washington Post study reveals that 60 percent of all challenges were made by only 11 people. Previously, book challenges trickled in from individuals one book at a time.

But these days, serial filers lodging 10 or more complaints are responsible for two-thirds of all challenges – some of them challenging literally hundreds of books.[58] And a good number of these rely on a network of volunteers gathered with the backing of political organizations like those mentioned above.

Legislators are also compiling vast lists of books to challenge, like the one containing 850 books from Texas state representative Matt Krause. He then sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency and superintendents of school districts around the state requiring that schools tell him whether they possess any books on his list. Krause’s correspondence also demanded a detailed accounting of where those books are and how much money was spent on them.[59] And it doesn’t stop there.

State-sponsored censorship

And, here’s the evidence. Proposals in the Missouri legislature, one of which states that librarians would be “punished by a fine” of up to five hundred dollars or “by imprisonment in the county jail” of up to one year for providing “age-inappropriate sexual material.”[60]  But who decides what material is “age-inappropriate”? As any parent will tell you, children’s readiness for any given subject matter is as individual as the kids themselves.

Then there’s Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which has several Florida schools removing books from their libraries.[61] There’s also the Sunshine State’s “Stop Woke Act”, which restricts the discussion of difficult historic truths that may make students feel “discomfort, guilt, or anguish” due to U.S. racial history – institutional slavery, for example, or how First Nations peoples were forced onto reservations, or that Japanese-Americans were put into internment camps during World War II.[62] Much to the dismay of their students, this law has teachers removing or covering all the books in their classroom libraries until they have been “vetted” by the proper authorities.[63]

And Project 2025 is looming, which would elevate such censorship and book banning to the federal level. In Project 2025’s forward, Kevin D. Roberts declares that the terms “sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, [and] reproductive rights” would be deleted from “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”[64]

Project 2025 further states that “the noxious tenets of ‘critical race theory’ and ‘gender ideology’ should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country. These theories poison our children.”[65] Earlier in the forward, such tenets are characterized as pornography.  And, it declares that “the people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders.”[66]

Unlike the society Montag lives in, we aren’t literally setting books aflame…  yet. But, we are setting proverbial fire to the constitution.

And yet again, it’s Toni Morrison with a pearl of wisdom about the significance of book banning:

The historical suppression of writers is the earliest harbinger of the steady peeling away of additional rights and liberties that will follow.[67]
.

In Conclusion

Fortunately, there’s an alliance of activists pushing back against book banning. This community parallels the one in the last segment of Fahrenheit 451 who memorize books, and function as living libraries.

Groups like the American Library Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, and indeed the individuals behind websites like This Book is Banned are fighting to ensure our right to read.

Given what’s at stake – especially bearing Toni Morrison’s words in mind – join the coalition. Get Involved. Vote in elections of every level, and elect legislators who’ll submit bills like the Books Save Lives Act  and the Fight Book Bans Act rather than the Stop WOKE Act.

Speak out in support of books that have been challenged at school board meetings. Better yet, run for your local school board.

Exercise your reading rights. Check out banned books from your public library – it really does help!

And finally, support your public library. Because, when it comes to books and the dangers that arise from banning them, libraries embody the biblical passage Montag cites at the close of Fahrenheit 451:

And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.[68]

Books, of course, are the fruit of a library. And, as Bradbury is keen to point out, the future is going to need them.
.

That’s my take on Ray Bradbury’s  Fahrenheit 451 – what’s yours?
Check out these Reader Resources from the 
National Endowment for the Arts to get you started.

Endnotes:

[1] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451-The 5oth Anniversary Edition.  New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 3.

[2] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451-The 5oth Anniversary Edition.  New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 3.

[3] Butler, Bethonie. “Ray Bradbury dies: Favorite quotes from the ‘Fahrenheit 451’ author.” The Washington Post, June 6, 2012. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/ray-bradbury-dies-favorite-quotes-from-the-fahrenheit-451-author/2012/06/06/gJQAGhIoIV_blog.html

[4] “Meaning of the first name Clarisse.” Ancestry.com

[5] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 9.

[6] Hesse, Hermann. “On Reading Books.” in My Belief: Essays on Life and Art. Edited by Theodore Ziolkowski. Translated by Denver Lindley. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974), 101.

[7] Mydans, Seth. “In a Small Town, a Battle Over a Book.” The New York Times, (Sept. 3, 1989).

[8] Wexler, Natalie. “New Study Suggests Standardized Testing Misses A Lot of Learning.” Forbes. February 23, 2023. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2023/02/22/new-study-suggests-standardized-reading-tests-miss-a-lot-of-learning/

[9] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 8.

[10] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 8.

[11] Kober, Farra. “Randi Weingarten: Common Core should be a guide, not a straitjacket.” May 9, 2014. MSNBC. https://www.msnbc.com/all/you-asked-randi-weingarten-answered-common-core-standardized-testing-msna325831

[12] Watts, Judy H. “Bans that disrupt democracy.” Washington Magazine. February 19, 2024. https://source.wustl.edu/2024/02/bans-that-disrupt-democracy/ 

[13] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 60.

[14] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 60.

[15] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 61.

[16] Snyder, Christopher A. “A Liberal Education in Name Only.” Inside Higher Ed. October 23, 2023.
https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/10/23/liberal-education-name-only-opinion

[17] Gregory, Danny. “Let’s Get Rid of Art Education in Schools.” Kappan. April 1, 2017.

[18] “Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities.” American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

[19] Fine, Benjamin. “Einstein Stresses Critical Thinking.” The New York Times. October 5, 1952.

[20] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 59.

[21] Driscoll, Molly. “30 banned books that may surprise you.” The Christian Science Monitor. October 3, 2012. https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/1003/30-banned-books-that-may-surprise-you/The-Diary-of-A-Young-Girl-by-Anne-Frank

[22] Van Winkle, Katie. “Saving Mango Street.”  Rethinking Schools.  https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/saving-mango-street/

[23] “Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.” Banned Library.
https://www.bannedlibrary.com/podcast/2015/12/26/banned-46-of-mice-and-men

[24] Wells, Herbert George. “The Contemporary Novel.” The Atlantic Monthly. January, 1912. Pg 8

[25] Morrison, Toni. “Peril” Burn This Book: notes on literature and engagement. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 3.

[26] Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston. “What Happens When Young People Actually read ‘Disturbing’ Books.” Teachers College Press blog. October 31, 2023.

[27] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 57.

[28] Perlmutter, Sammy. “Jon Stewart Takes on ‘Huckleberry Finn’ N-Word Controversy.” HuffPost. Jamuary 12. 2011.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jon-stewart-takes-on-huck_n_807921

[29] Kirk-Duggan, Cheryl A. “Quilting Relations with Creation: Overcoming, Going Through, and Not Being Stuck.” Deeper Shades of Purple: Womanism in Religion and Society, New York: New York University Press, 2006. Pg 180.

[30] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 57.

[31] Sova, Dawn B. “Censorship History of Fahrenheit 451.” Banned Books: Literature Suppressed on Social Grounds, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Pg 134.

[32] Edgar Guest has been called “the poet of the people,” whose poems presented a deeply sentimental view of daily life. “Edgar Guest.” The Academy of American Poets. Poets.org   https://poets.org/poet/edgar-guest

[33] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 176.

[34] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[35] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[36] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[37] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[38] Morehart, Phil. “Defeating Bullies and Trolls.” American Libraries. March 15, 2019. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/librarians-defeating-bullies-trolls/

[39] Pendharkar, Eesha. “A School Librarian Pushes Back on Censorship and Gets Death Threats and Online Harassment.” EducationWeek.September 22, 2022.
https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/a-school-librarian-pushes-back-on-censorship-and-gets-death-threats-and-online-harassment/2022/09

[40] Alfonseca, Kiara. “Librarians say tthey face threats, lawsuits, jail fears over ongoing book battles.” April 13, 2024. Abcnews.go.com
https://abcnews.go.com/US/librarians-face-threats-lawsuits-jail-fears-ongoing-book/story?id=109081570

[41] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[42] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 58.

[43] Reena Advani, Rachel Treisman. “Banned Books: George M. Johnson on the need to tell all people’s stories.” NPR.org
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1130433140/banned-books-all-boys-arent-blue-george-johnson-lgbtq-ya

[44] “Book Bannings Targeting Black Authors and Perspectives Are Skyrocketing.” Everylibrary.org February 07, 2023.
https://action.everylibrary.org/book_bannings_targeting_black_authors_and_perspectives_are_skyrocketing

Tyler Kingkade, Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins. “Critical race theory battles invade school boards – with help from  conservative groups.” NBCnews. June 15, 2021.   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-invades-school-boards-help-conservative-groups-n1270794

[45] Bellamy-Walker, Tat. “Book bans in schools are catching fire. Black authors say uproar isn’t about students.” NBCnews. January 6, 2022.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/book-bans-schools-are-catching-fire-black-authors-say-uproar-isnt-stud-rcna10228

[46] Getachew, Denora. “Best Banned Books by Black Authers, from Toni Morrison to Angie Thomas.” Teen Vogue. February, 2023. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/best-banned-books-black-authors

[47]  Cathryn Stout, Sam Park, Dan Lyon, and Monica Rhor. “How Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project ignited the critical race theory backlash.” Chalkbeat Tennessee. July 19, 2021.

[48] Naatanson, Hannah. “Objection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challenges.” The Washington Post. June 9, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/23/lgbtq-book-ban-challengers/

[49] “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023.” American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

[50] Pendharkar, Eesha. “Book Ban Debates Prompt Bomb Threats Against Schools.” Education Week. April 27, 2023. https://www.edweek.org/leadership/book-ban-debates-prompt-bomb-threats-against-schools/2023/04

[51] “Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023.” American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

[52] Morrison, Toni. “Peril” Burn This Book: notes on literature and engagement. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 2.

[53] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 59.

[54] Gruver, Mead. “From masks to book banning, conservatives take on educators.”
Associated Press. December 19, 2021.
https://apnews.com/article/conservatives-educators-coronavirus-masks-book-banning-cfe02e318d95070d468c88e7294d8aa9

[55] Denise-Marie Ordway. “School board elections in the US: What research shows.” The Journalist’s Resource. May 28, 2024. https://journalistsresource.org/education/school-board-elections-research/

[56] Chavez, Nicole. “At least 50 groups in the US advocated to ban books in the past year.” CNN.com September 19, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/19/us/book-ban-movement-pen-america-report-reaj/index.html

[57] Atterbury, Andrew. “National conservative groups pour money into local school board races.” Politico. September 19, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/19/conservative-school-board-fundraising-florida-00057325

[58] Naatanson, Hannah. “Objection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challenges.” The Washington Post. June 9, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/23/lgbtq-book-ban-challengers/

Lapin, Andrew. “Meet Bruce Friedman, the Jewish dad who got a version of Anne Frank’s diary and hundreds of other books banned from his Florida school district.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency. October 6, 2023. https://www.jta.org/2023/10/06/united-states/this-jewish-dad-got-a-version-of-anne-franks-diary-removed-from-his-florida-school-district

[59] Chappell, Bill. “A Texas lawmaker is targeting 850 books that he says could make students feel uneasy.” NPR.org October 28, 2021. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050013664/texas-lawmaker-matt-krause-launches-inquiry-into-850-books

[60] Missouri House Bill No. 2044. https://house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills201/hlrbillspdf/4634H.01I.pdf

[61] Legum, Judd. “’Don’t Say Gay’: Florida schools purge library books with LGBTQ characters.” Popular Information. January 5, 2023. https://popular.info/p/dont-say-gay-florida-schools-purge

[62]  Florida Bill 2022148. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/148/BillText/Filed/HTML

[63] Negussie, Tesfaye and Rahma Ahmed. “Florida schools directed to cover or remove classroom books that are not vetted.” abcNEWS. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/florida-schools-directed-cover-remove-classroom-books-vetted/story?id=96884323

[64] Project 2025. Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2024.Pg 4-5.

[65] Project 2025,.Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2024. Pg 5.

[66] Project 2025. Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation, 2024 Pg 5.

[67] Morrison, Toni. “Peril” Burn This Book: notes on literature and engagement. New York: Harper, 2009. Pg 3.

[68] Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451 – The 50^th Anniversary Edition. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pg 165.

Images:

Montag’s Enlightenment:  Photo by Nghia Le on Unsplash

Clarisse’s remarks also apply to how we read: Photo by Thong Vo on Unsplash

Clarisse’s uncle and standardized testing: Photo by Ben Mullins on Unsplash

Disregard for the Humanities: Photo by Markus Spiskeon Unsplash

Only happy books are allowed: Photo by Josh Felise on Unsplash

Sanitizing literary works: Photo by Mediamodifier on Unsplash

The slippery slope to anti-intellectualism:  Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

Silencing stories about diversity: Photo by Jackson Simmer on Unsplash

Black literature:  Maya Angelou reciting her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. William J Clinton Presidential Library. Public Domain

LGBTQ+ literature: Photo by Isi Parente on Unsplash

Societal energy is re-directed: Photo by Rey Seven on Unsplash

State-sponsored censorship: Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

In Conclusion:  Photo by Johann Siemens on Unsplash

FYI:

T
his year’s theme is Freed Between the Lines. Our freedom to explore different perspectives and new ideas is under threat to be sure. But, book bans do more than just restrict our access to stories. They undermine our rights. So, let’s push back against book bans by coming together to celebrate the right to read…  and find freedom in the pages of a book.

The Office for Intellectual Freedom has documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023. Four key trends have emerged from the data they gathered from 2023 censorship reports:

• In 2023, pressure groups focused on public libraries as well as targeting school libraries. The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries grew by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges last year. School libraries saw an 11% uptick over 2022 numbers.
  .
• This surge was driven by groups and individuals demanding the censorship of multiple titles, often dozens or hundreds at a time.
  .
• 47% of the titles targeted in censorship attempts represent the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals.
  .
• There were attempts to censor more than 100 titles in each of these 17 states: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin.[1]

Book bans are clearly on the rise across America. So, starting on Banned Books Week, the Banned Wagon—powered by Penguin Random House, Unite Against Book Bans (UABB), First Book, and Little Free Library—is setting out on their second Banned Wagon tour. They’ll be stopping at bookstores and libraries in nine American communities across the Midwest and the South that are being impacted by book banning.

Get their tour schedule here. And, hop on the Banned Wagon, join the fight against censorship, and pick up your free banned book while supplies last!

Some Ways to Get Involved.

Banned Books Week is a time to voice censorship concerns, and show our communities the importance of intellectual freedom. It’s also a time to celebrate free expression.

Here are some things you can do to fight censorship, keep books available in libraries, and promote the freedom to read!

Stay informed. If you hear about a challenge at your local library, support your librarian, as well as  free and open access to library materials by contacting the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF). That’s important because OIF estimates that it only learns about 3-18% of all book challenges.

Speak out. Talk to your friends about why we should all be allowed to choose for ourselves what we and our family read. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper, your public library director, and your school principal supporting the freedom to read. Speak about the importance of unrestricted reading on your local public radio station.

Write a letter to a favorite banned or challenged author. Take a few minutes to thank a banned or challenged author for their words. You can find their Twitter handles and addresses here.

Organize a film Festival:  Film and video productions can vividly depict the impact censorship has on individuals and society. Consider screening a film or sponsoring a First Amendment film festival for Banned Books Week. Here’s a list of suggestions.

But be aware that public performance of these videos and DVDs may require a license. You can find information about these licenses at Motion Picture Licensing Corporation and Movie Licensing USA.

It’s important to note that, happily, many documentaries come with public performance licenses.

Exercise your reading rights. Check out a banned book from your public library. Encourage your book club to discuss rebellious reads. Here’s a list of the top ten most challenged books of 2023 – with a book resume and information about their challenges –  to help you get started.

Finally, peruse This Book is Banned’s readings of books that have been banned.

Also…  don’t forget our Power of Books Series, interviews with authors about why it’s important for stories containing characters with diverse backgrounds and life experience to be told.

And most importantly,
keep the momentum going beyond Banned Books Week.
Engage in these activities all year round. 

#on censorship

Endnotes:

[1]  “Book Ban Data.” American Library Association.   https://www.ala.org/bbooks/book-ban-data

A
ccess to diverse books is not only essential to a strong education and a free mind, it’s critical to a healthy democracy.

Reading is more than merely the decoding of texts. It’s the main road to basic information exchange, personal development, and the foundation of life-long learning.

More importantly, however, reading is our most powerful tool for developing analytic and critical thinking. It expands our conceptual capacities. It trains perspective-taking and cognitive empathy – social skills indispensable for informed citizens in a democratic society.[1]

But, we’re currently in the midst of a book banning crisis.

Well-funded pressure groups are mandating the removal of books from library and school shelves. They’re pushing state governments to impose educational gag orders on teachers and staff.

These laws silence discussion about race and gender in America, as well as difficult issues like poverty, domestic abuse, and drug addiction.

In doing so, they isolate and discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and students of color. They leave victims of abuse feeling detached, alone, and blaming themselves for what they have suffered.

They give us the impression that the cycle of poverty is easily broken, or that only people who are morally deficient suffer from addiction.

And…  they cast a long and shameful shadow of censorship across our libraries and schools.

Polling repeatedly shows that communities across our country agree that families should be able to decide for themselves what their children can and cannot read. Not another parent. And certainly not a politician. At their core, these laws are anti-family, anti-freedom, and anti-American. [2]

Put a stop to these policies at the ballot box.

These pressure groups won’t quit pushing for anti-education policies. Nor will state and local legislators refrain from introducing such bills until we put a stop to it at the ballot box. Like in the election that’s coming up in November.

So, we must use our votes up and down the ballot to demand that our policymakers protect students, public servants, and especially our right to read. That means voting for legislators who support the belief that our public institutions must serve diverse communities and remain a hallmark of a free people.

It means voting for lawmakers who will put forward legislation like the Books Save Lives Act and the Fight Book Bans Act, rather than the Don’t Say Gay bill or the Stop the Woke act – which impose educational gags, and undermine what libraries are all about.

HERE’S A VOTER CHECKLIST TO ENSURE THAT WE DO JUST THAT:

• PREPARE FOR THE ELECTION.
  • Register or confirm your voter registration.
  • Know what’s on your ballot.
  • Go to this site for state-by-state election information.
    .
• ADVOCATE WITH THIS ACTION TOOLKIT from Unite Against Book Bans.
  • Share the candidate questionnaire.
  • Or use it to ask key questions during public forums.
  • Review talking points, contact media, and more.

• ORGANIZE YOUR COMMUNITY.
  • Use your personal influence to help friends, family, and other community members prepare for elections and turn out to vote.
  • Check out these resources for library professionals, educators, faith groups, students, parents, and authors.
    .
• SHOW UP & SPEAK OUT.
  The freedom to read is a non-partisan, American value. Let’s mobilize our communities to vote in every election – for pro-library, anti-book banning candidates.
  .
• MOST IMPORTANTLY, GET TO THE POLLS AND CAST YOUR VOTE![3]

Because a democratic society – which is based on informed multi-stakeholder consensus – can only succeed with resilient readers. As Margaret Atwood points out in her oft-quoted warning:

If there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy…  will be dead as well”.[4]

#on censorship       #The Books Save Lives Act

Endnotes:

[1] The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto: Why higher-level reading is important. October 20, 2023. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. https://www.ifla.org/news/ljubljana-manifesto-on-higher-level-reading-launched-at-frankfurter-buchmesse/

[2] Take the Voter Pledge. Unite Against Book Bans. https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/vote/

[3] Take the Voter Pledge. Unite Against Book Bans. https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/vote/

[4] The Ljubljana Reading Manifesto: Why higher-level reading is important. October 20, 2023. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. https://www.ifla.org/news/ljubljana-manifesto-on-higher-level-reading-launched-at-frankfurter-buchmesse/

Images:

Vote: Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Book Banning Crisis: Photo by Masaaki Komori on Unsplash

Ballot Box:  Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

I
magine if you will, living in a world where you never see yourself represented in books or media. (Insert Twilight Zone theme song here). And, when you finally do, it’s as negative, immoral, or downright evil. How would that effect you? And what does it have to do with The Picture of Dorian Gray?

Consider this… LGBTQIA youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their straight cisgendered peers. Not because LGBTQIA individuals are inherently prone to suicide risk – they aren’t. Being stigmatized by society is what places LGBTQIA individuals, like mathematician and early computer genius Alan Turing, at a higher risk for suicide.[1]

Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is the story of this unfortunate reality. And, Dorian’s portrait is a roadmap of psychological damage resulting from societal stigma, rather than one of sinful debauchery as it is traditionally viewed.

The Picture of Dorian Gray revolves around a triumvirate of core characters who collectively represent the experience of a single individual. Wilde tells us this himself, when he wrote the following in a letter to an admirer of his writings regarding Wilde’s relation to the characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray:

Basil Hallward is what I think I am;
Lord Henry what the world thinks me;
Dorian is what I would like to be in other ages, perhaps.[2]

You see… Wilde was among those who participated in London’s gay subculture. Like many of these men, he led a secret double life. Having experienced it firsthand, Wilde knew what it’s like to try to navigate an intolerant society.

Each of Dorian Gray’s core characters embodies an aspect of what it’s like for LGBTQIA individuals who live in a repressive, anti-LBTQIA society… or as Wilde put it, “a harsh, uncomely Puritanism.”[3] And, Basil Hallward’s painting of Dorian Gray reflects the erosion of psychological and emotional well-being caused by living in such corrosive circumstances – an experience that all too often ends in suicide.

The Picture of Dorian Gray – controversial from the start

 The Picture of Dorian Gray comes closer than any other mainstream English novel of its time to treating same gender sexuality in an overt fashion. And, as this scathing review indicates, when the first installment of this serialized work appeared in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine (July, 1890), it was immediately controversial, and continues to be commonly banned: [4]

Mr. Oscar Wilde has again been writing stuff that were better unwritten; and while The Picture of Dorian Gray, which he contributes to Lippincott’s, is ingenious, interesting, full of cleverness, plainly the work of a man of letters, it is false art – for its interest is medico-legal; it is false to human nature – for its hero is a devil; it is false to morality – for it is not made sufficiently clear that the writer does not prefer a course of unnatural iniquity to a life of cleanliness, health, and sanity.[5]

Reviews in leading magazines the Scots Observer and the St. James’s Gazette suggested Wilde should be prosecuted for what he had written. And W.  H. Smith & Son, Britain’s largest bookseller, pulled the July issue of Lippincott’s from its railway bookstalls.[6]

And this was after Lippincott’s editor struck nearly 500 words from Wilde’s original transcript, material which made the sexual nature of Basil’s feelings for Dorian Gray even more vivid and clear.

In response to this backlash, Wilde further edited his manuscript in an effort to appease the public. A guy has to make a living after all, and this reaction to his work put that at risk. To say nothing of getting on The National Vigilance Association’s radar (which is precisely the social purity organization it sounds like it is).[7]

The fact that The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence against Wilde in his trial for “gross indecency,” underscores just how incendiary it was. Wilde was charged under the eleventh amendment of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act, which created the new offense of gross indecency, criminalizing all sexual activity between men. He was sentenced to two years hard labor, the most extreme sentence possible under the law.[8]

Terms like “sexual orientation” didn’t exist 

Victorian Society saw same gender sexuality as an unclean and “deviant” vice rather than as an orientation or identity. [9] Consequently, Victorians lacked the language relating to same gender sexuality that has since developed. So, we can’t expect to see terms like “sexual orientation” or “gay” in the text.

There’s also the recent criminalization of sexual relations of any kind between men. So, references to “medico-legal” interest, “unnatural iniquity,” and being “false to human nature” are clearly coded imputations of male, same gender sexuality.[10]

According to literary critic Richard Ellman, after the publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray, “Victorian literature had a different look.”[11] More importantly, as Art is wont to do, Wilde’s novel altered the way Victorians saw and understood the world they lived in, particularly regarding sexuality and masculinity.

The backlash evident in outraged reviews like the one above – with their coded language and allusions to criminal prosecution – shows very clearly that many early British readers were aware of the ways this book refers to same gender sexuality. And, in doing so, it was challenging Victorian notions of masculine sexuality.[12]

As a result, Wilde’s work and life – the trials for “gross indecency” in particular – are widely credited as the impetus for same gender sexuality being seen as a distinct sexual orientation and social identity.[13]

Setting the scene with flowers

 Wilde’s use of floral imagery in the opening paragraphs of The Picture of Dorian Gray has been seen as linking Basil Hallward’s studio to Victorian London’s Artists’ colonies – which it absolutely does. [14] Given the popularity of floriography during this time, however, we can’t ignore Wilde’s choice of flowers and what these selections reveal.

Floriography is the language of flowers. And, it was a widely popular form of coded communication in the Victorian era. This cryptological system attaches specific and subtle meanings to individual varieties of flowers.

This form of code produces a hidden message for the intended recipient of the blooms in question, frequently revealing how the sender feels about the receiver. In this case, Wilde’s floriographic message is intended for the Victorian-era readers of Dorian Gray, an audience well-versed in the language of flowers and sure to understand its coded meaning.*[15]

Wilde uses flowers in the opening passage to set the emotional stage, to let the reader know love is literally in the air:

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.[16]

As anyone who has ever watched a rom com knows, roses signify love (the type, of course, depends on the variety of rose). So, love is indeed literally in the air.

The scent of lilacs that comes wafting through the studio door, indicates youthful innocence and the first emotions of love. And, the delicate perfume of the Maiden Blush Rose, a very fragrant pink variety of rose common in Victorian gardens conveys the message “If you love me, you will find it out.”[17]

The stage is set. The Victorian reader knows that the conversation that follows will concern the first blush of romantic love, as well as the fact that these feelings remain undisclosed.

I turned half-way round and saw Dorian Gray for the first time. When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.[18]

Wilde’s floral choices are more than just purple prose, their symbolic meaning makes it clear to the Victorian reader that passages like this one – text that appears simply vague to the modern reader – are not so ambiguous after all. To Dorian Gray’s original audience, it was perfectly clear that the studio’s occupant, Basil Hallward, has an amorous attraction to a young man named Dorian Gray.

And the reason Basil refuses to exhibit the portrait of Dorian Gray is because he is “afraid [he] might have shown with it the secret of [his] soul” – and he doesn’t want to inadvertently “out” himself in modern parlance.[19] Elaborating on his first encounter with Dorian, Basil reveals to Lord Henry Wotton:

Something seemed to tell me that I was on the verge of a terrible crisis in my life. I had a strange feeling that Fate had in store for me exquisite joys and exquisite sorrows. I knew that if I spoke to Dorian I would become absolutely devoted to him, and that I ought not to speak to him.[20]

As Oscar Wilde indicated in the letter mentioned above, this is how he sees himself, as having genuine feelings for another man, but needing to remain closeted due to societal pressures – the vilification of same gender sexuality that ultimately ruined him.

The source for this essay is the uncensored version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. And as previously mentioned, Wilde edited – or more accurately, self-censored – the book after the backlash following its first appearance.

He deleted the lines “I knew that if I spoke to Dorian I would become absolutely devoted to him, and that I ought not to speak to him” from the above passage in the 1891 book version, the one most of us are familiar with. This deference to social pressure underscores Wilde’s concern for his own reputation.

Lilacs, symbol of Dorian’s innocence

As noted earlier, the lilac means innocence. And this symbolism evolves over the course of the first couple of chapters. The scent of lilacs refers to Basil’s feelings for Dorian, indicating the genuine and loving nature of his emotions.

And the flower signifies Dorian Gray’s character early in the text. Lilac blooms (rather than just their fragrance) are mentioned as Basil begins to tell the story of how he met Dorian. At this point, Dorian was innocent in the sense that he hadn’t realized his inclination toward same gender sexuality.

But, as a result of a conversation with Lord Henry Wotton – one laden with sexual innuendo and coded remarks about hidden impulses – Dorian comes to recognize what we would now call his sexual orientation:

Yes: there had been things in his boyhood that he had not understood. He understood them now. Life suddenly became fiery-coloured to him. It seemed to him that he had been walking in fire. Why had he not known?[21]

Like many transformative moments, Dorian finds this bewildering and uncomfortable – especially in a society as hostile to the idea of same gender sexuality as the Victorian era. So, he excuses himself from Basil’s studio to get some fresh air in the garden. And:

Lord Henry went out to the garden and found Dorian Gray burying his face in the great cool lilac-blossoms, feverishly drinking in their perfume as if it had been wine.[22]

Dorian realizes that his true sexual orientation is toward same gender sexuality. And yet, he remains innocent – now in the sense of not being vilified, and considered evil by society. This is who Oscar Wilde would like to be, a man who loves other men and is still accepted by the society he lives in.

Laburnum signifies Lord Henry’s poisonous nature.

As indicated in the following passage, Lord Henry Wotton, an influential and cynical character, is associated with the laburnum tree:

From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose tremulous branches seemed hardly able to bear the burden of a beauty so flamelike as theirs…[23]

Laburnum is a poisonous plant that means “forsaken” in the language of floriography. The message being conveyed to recipients of laburnum is that the sender sees them as deserving to be abandoned by society.[24]

Consistent with the virulent aspect of laburnum, Lord Henry “poisons” Dorion by introducing him to notions like “every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind,” and “the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”[25] In doing so he, seemingly intentionally, destroys any possibility of a loving relationship between Basil and Dorian.

He strikes a nerve when he says to Dorian:

You, Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame…[26]

Lord Henry is intensely interested in Dorian. And his discourse clearly refers to same sex attraction, intending to test Dorian’s receptiveness to such remarks.

Dorian’s first response was to tell Lord Henry to “Stop!” to refrain from talking to him in this manner. But after further psychological prodding by Lord Henry, Dorian drops the spray of lilac he was holding during their conversation, indicating his loss of innocence… as he “listened, open-eyed and wondering.”[27]

It is significant that Lord Henry, linked to the poisonous laburnum tree, is introduced to the reader even before we meet Basil Hallward. For, this is how Wilde feels the world sees him, poisonous and predatory.

What is minority stress, and
how does it affect the mental health of gay men?

Minority stress is psychosocial stress caused by chronic exposure to the social stresses  that sexual minority individuals face due to their stigmatized status (relative to the cisgender heterosexual population that is). Minority stress differs from general stress – the kind all of us may experience – because it is born of stigma and prejudice.

What is known as proximal stressors are also part of the collective package that is minority stress. And, they emerge from a socialization process where sexual and gender minority individuals learn to reject themselves for being LGBTQIA. In Dorian Gray’s case, internalized homophobia.

Another such stressor occurs when sexual and gender minority individuals develop the expectation to be stigmatized, a result of their awareness of prevailing social stigma. Hiding your identity to protect yourself from such social stigma – being closeted in modern parlance – is also a proximal stressor.

Studies indicate these stressors have a significant association with a number of mental health concerns. Unfortunately, but understandably, men with high levels of minority stress are twice to three times more likely to suffer from psychological distress such as demoralization, guilt, – and all too often – suicide ideation and behavior.[28]

Dorian’s Internalized Homophobia

LGBTQIA individuals have internalized a hostile society’s negative attitudes toward sexual and gender minorities long before they recognize their own orientation and sexuality. And, logically, when they do realize their (in Dorian’s case) same-sex attraction, they begin to apply the term LGBTQIA to themselves.

As this self-labeling begins, however, LGBTQIA individuals also begin to apply the negative societal attitudes they’ve absorbed to themselves. And, that’s when the psychologically-injurious effects of a hostile society take effect.

Along with the recognition of same-sex attraction, a “deviant identity” starts to emerge, one that threatens the psychological well-being of the LGBTQIA individual in question.[29] This is the process we see play out when Dorian Gray looks at his portrait for the first time.

Dorian made no answer, but passed listlessly in front of his picture and turned towards it. When he saw it he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time.[30]

Dorian does indeed recognize himself for the first time, finally realizing his same-sex orientation. He also takes in “the sense of his own beauty” – in other words innocence –  just as he begins to comprehend Lord Henry’s remarks about aging.[31]

Lord Henry points out that the grace of his figure would become “broken and deformed,” “the scarlet would pass away from his lips and the gold steal from his hair.”[32] This is, of course, how society would now see him as an LGBYQIA individual, “ignoble, hideous and uncouth.”[33]

As he thought of it, a sharp pang of pain struck through him like a knife and made each delicate fibre of his nature quiver. His eyes deepened into amethyst, and across them came a mist of tears. He felt as if a hand of ice had been laid upon his heart.[34]

Dorian Gray’s internalized homophobia has clearly emerged. And, his wish to remain young signifies a desire to continue being seen as he was before his revelation about the true nature of his sexual orientation…  in a positive manner, as Lady Brandon described him to Basil – “charming.”[35]

The painting that gives rise to this wish represents the deviant entity that is psychological damage. Later in the text, Wilde asks whether the picture would “teach [Dorian] to loathe his own soul.”[36] Psychologically speaking, the answer is yes.

Dorian’s Denial: a symptom of internalized homophobia

One of the more common forms of internalized homophobia is to deny your true sexual orientation.[37] And, Dorian’s relationship with Sibyl Vane indicates that, at this point in the narrative, he is in denial.

Barely a month after Dorian came to recognize his same gender sexual orientation, he announces to Lord Henry that he’s in love with a young woman named Sybil Vane:

I love Sybil Vane. I wish to place her on a pedestal of gold, and to see the world worship the woman who is mine. What is marriage? An irrevocable vow. And it is an irrevocable vow that I want to take. Her trust makes me faithful, her belief makes me good. When I am with her, I regret all that you have taught me. I become different from what you have known me to be. I am changed, and the mere touch of Sybil Vane’s hand makes me forget you and all your wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories.[38]

This sounds more like a vindication of his denial than a testament of true love. Dorian wants the world to see the “woman who is mine.” In other words, he wants the world to see him conforming to the dominant heterosexual culture. And in doing so, annihilate the possibility of having same sex desires.

“Her trust makes me faithful, her belief makes me good” – in short, Sybil’s presence will keep Dorian in line with societal norms. When he’s with her, he regrets everything Lord Henry has taught him. The mere touch of her hand “makes [him] forget [Lord Henry] and all [his] wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories.” So in Dorian’s mind, he can’t actually be gay… but notice the words “fascinating,” and “delightful” woven into his refutation.

And let’s not forget what he found so attractive about Sybil’s acting:

Sybil was playing Rosalind. Of course the scenery was dreadful, and the Orlando absurd. But Sybil! You should have seen her! When she came on in her boy’s dress she was perfectly wonderful.[39]

 Sybil’s role as Rosalind, in her “perfectly wonderful” “boy’s dress” blurs the gender lines for Dorian. And, she’s good at pretending to be someone she really isn’t – which is precisely what Dorian is trying to do.

When Sybil’s acting ability flounders and he is forced to see her for who she really is, his interest dies as well. So, he breaks off their engagement, in cruel and uncertain terms. And, the effects of Dorian’s denial-based psychological gymnastics manifest in the painting.

Basil’s outwardly hostile form of internalized homophobia

The fateful night when Basil Hallward shows up on Dorian’s doorstep, before his departure on the midnight train for Paris, he embodies a form of internalized homophobia that occurs when LGBTQIA individuals negatively judge others sexual and gender minority individuals.[40]

Dorian ran into him on the street, and when he did, a “strange sense of fear, for which he could not account, came over him.”[41] After a few minutes of small talk, Basil makes it clear that he wants to address “the hideous things people are whispering about [Dorian].”[42]

Basil immediately begins to read Dorian the riot act, as the expression goes, launching into a lengthy diatribe:

Why is it, Dorian, that a man like the Duke of Berwick leaves the room of a club when you enter it? Why is it that so many gentlemen in London will neither go to your house nor invite you to theirs?…

 Why is it that every young man that you take up seems to come to grief, to go to the bad at once? There was that wretched boy in the Guards who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry Ashton, who had to leave England, with a tarnished name. You and he were inseparable. What about Adrian Singleton, and his dreadful end?…[43]

 You get the picture. And that was just the beginning. Basil continues his harangue, actually taking it up a notch and getting downright parental:

I do want to preach to you. I want you to lead such a life as will make the world respect you. I want you to have a clean name and a fair record. I want you to get rid of the dreadful people you associate with. Don’t shrug your shoulders like that. Don’t be so indifferent…[44]

After getting a look at the portrait he painted of Dorian all those years ago, Basil really lets loose:

My God! if it is true…  and this is what you have done with your life, why, you must be worse even than those who talk against you fancy you to be!…

 Pray, Dorian, pray… What is it that one was taught to say in one’s boyhood? Lead us not into temptation. Forgive us our sins. Wash away our iniquities. Let us say it together.[45]

 At that point, Dorian feels like a “hunted animal,” an apt description of how it must feel to be on the receiving end of an openly hostile society. So, Dorian picks up the knife that was lying on a chest a few feet away, one that was there because he’d used it a few days earlier to cut a piece of chord. And, in short, he stabs Basil to death with it.

Symbolically speaking, Basil’s murder is psychological and emotional self-defense. And once again, the psychological damage – this time the result of enduring an openly hostile society – appears in the painting.

Gossip and Scandal: A source of Minority Stress.

Between cycles of denial, Dorian was a bit of a “wild child” as the expression goes. One who was beginning to create an unfavorable reputation for himself. And it was this gossip, and the need to avoid scandal, that Basil was confronting Dorian about on his way to Paris.

Scandals are ubiquitous social phenomena. They’re the public event par excellence, creating a singular dramatic intensity by mobilizing significant amounts of emotional energy, usually with momentous consequences.

They discredit and disgrace by undermining the social standing and reputation of those they effect. The most important thing to remember about a scandal, however, is that its power of contamination is derived from shame.[46] And this shame appears in the painting.

A careful reader notices that The Picture of Dorian Gray’s opening pages contain a comment about the sudden disappearance of Basil Hallward a number of years earlier.

 Basil’s disappearance was evidently quite the scandal. The reference points out that it caused “such public excitement, and gave rise to so many strange conjectures” when it occurred.[47]

This phrase suggests that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a story being conveyed as gossip, one that keeps the scandal surrounding Basil Hallward’s disappearance alive after all these years.

There’s also the rumor that Dorian was seen “brawling with foreign sailors” in the “distant parts of Whitechapel.”[48] The scuttlebutt was that he “consorted with thieves and coiners and knew the mysteries of their trade.”[49] And, much ado was made about his absences from the city.

As a result of this gossip, Dorian was “blackballed at a West End Club of which his birth and social position fully entitled him to become a member.”[50] When a friend of Dorian’s  brought him into the smoking-room of the Carlton, the Duke of Berwick and another gentleman stood up “in a marked manner,” and left the room.

Lord Henry makes the following remark in the 1891 version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, “the books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”[51] The shame Wilde seems to be exposing to the reader is Victorian society’s propensity to vilify men who love other men as evil, and ruining them with scandalous gossip.

The psychological damage associated with being the subject of gossip and scandal appears on Dorian’s portrait too.

Psychological maladies: demoralization and guilt

Over time, Dorian has clearly come to accept that he is indeed attracted to other men. But, given the societal stigma associated with such sexuality, and potential social ruin should it become known, he must hide his true orientation.

Therefore, for many years, Dorian has been immersing himself in intellectual and philosophical endeavors as a “means of forgetfulness, modes by which he could escape, for a season, from the fear that seemed to him at times to be almost too great to be borne.”[52]

But repressing your true self is extremely psychologically taxing. So, as mentioned above, he has also periodically embarked on “mysterious and prolonged absences,” when he would engage in things like those Basil was berating him for. It was his habit, for example, to frequent places like “the little ill-famed tavern near the Docks” – in disguise and using a false name, of course.[53]

When he met Hetty Merton, Dorian was showing signs of demoralization and guilt, the psychological maladies that typically develop as a result of such minority stress.

Once again, Dorian relates the story of his relationship with a woman to Lord Henry. Only this time around, the plan isn’t to marry Hetty. It’s simply to set her up in a place he would visit every now and again. Nevertheless, like Lord Henry’s marriage, an arrangement with Hetty would go a long way toward keeping gossip about Dorian’s sexual orientation at bay.

She was quite beautiful, and wonderfully like Sybil Vane. I think it was that which first attracted me to her. You remember Sybil, don’t you? How long ago that seems! Well, Hetty was not one of our own class, of course. She was simply a girl in a village. But I really loved her. I am quite sure that I loved her.[54]

Dorian’s pronouncement of his love for Hetty is clearly more subdued than his enthusiastic attestation of love for Sybil Vane. The phrase “I am quite sure that I loved her” comes across as downcast and dispirited.

It sounds more like he’s trying to convince himself he had some sort of affection for her, feelings that would make a convenience relationship bearable, rather than a declaration of romantic love.

During their conversation regarding Hetty, Dorian talks with Lord Henry about how many “dreadful things” he has done in his life, things that he is “not going to do anymore.”[55] Dorian declares “I am going to alter. I think have altered.”[56] 

And, to prove it (at least to himself) he reveals that his reason for ending the relationship with Hetty was because he “didn’t want to bring her shame.”[57] Whether that’s actually the case or Dorian is simply despondent, he’s clearly immersed in the demoralization and guilt that minority stress so frequently gives rise to.

Self-loathing: suicide ideation & behavior

 As Dorian was walking home from Lord Henry’s following their conversation about Hetty, two young men passed him on the sidewalk, and he heard one of them whisper to the other “That is Dorian Gray.”[58] He used to be pleased when he was recognized or talked about, but not anymore.

Given the number of whispering campaigns about him making their way through the social community these days, to say nothing of the open hostility he’s experienced, “He was tired of hearing his own name.”[59]
When he made it home and was settling in for the night, Dorian began to wonder if it was really true that we can never change. And, he “felt a wild longing for the unstained purity of his boyhood.”[60] This sentiment sent Dorian sliding into self-loathing:

He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption, and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that of the lives that had crossed his own it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame. But was it all irretrievable? Was there no hope for him?[61]

 Hetty Merton popped into his head again and the good he had done in her regard. And, Dorian began to wonder if the painting locked away upstairs had changed. Maybe if his life became pure, he would be able to erase all the signs of his “evil passion” from its face.[62]

So, he went to take a look. He locks the door behind him as usual, and uncovers the portrait. And when he did “a cry of pain and indignation broke from him.”[63] There had been no improvement. In fact, there was a new look of cunning in the eyes.

In the mouth he saw “the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite,” which wasn’t there before.[64]

And, the hypocrisy he saw was that of living a life in conflict with his true self. His portrait appeared more loathsome than ever.

It didn’t seem to matter how he went about trying to fit into a repressive, hostile, anti-LGBTQIA society as a sexual and gender minority. And, all the psychological damage he had endured due to minority stress remained visible in the painting.

The internalized homophobia that created this deviant entity was obviously there. The psychological gymnastics of denial was clearly evident. Feeling like a hunted animal in an openly hostile society was also there, conspicuously so.

So, Dorian looked around the room, and picked up the same knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward:

As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter’s work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free.[65]

The “painter’s work,” of course, means the deviant entity that emerges from internalized homophobia. In trying to put an end to it, and the psychological distress his portrait embodied, Dorian ended up killing himself.

He was found lying on the floor… dead – bearing all the scars once exhibited by his portrait.

In Conclusion

 The lives of far too many LGBTQIA individuals end the same way Dorian Gray’s did. And, that’s after enduring years of psychological trauma, caused by the stigma that comes with trying to navigate living in a hostile, anti-LGBTQIA society.

If you’re an LGBTQIA individual, it’s psychologically important to see yourself represented. And if you aren’t a sexual and gender minority, seeing members of the LGBTQIA community in books and media is just as beneficial psychologically.

There’s a lot of Othering going on, divisive fear mongering about people who have different life experiences than our own. That’s what all this book banning is about.

But, when we read books about people who have different life experiences than ours, we realize there’s nothing to be afraid of. We see that we’re all just trying to make our way in the world, and that we have more in common than the fear mongers would have us believe.

It isn’t just right to try and understand those around us and see them us equals. It’s psychologically beneficial…  because nobody wants to spend their lives living in a Twilight Zone where they’re constantly afraid. The Picture of Dorian Gray shows us how that ends up.

That’s my take on The Picture of Dorian Gray — what’s yours?

.
Use this discussion guide to inspire in-depth thinking,
and jump-start a conversation.

And, download Wilde’s norm-busting work here.

Endnotes:

[1] Alan Turing was a mathematician credited with developing a modern computer that aided British espionage efforts during World War II. Turing also had sex with men and, as a result, was branded a security threat and convicted under a criminal code that outlawed sex between men. In addition, he was barred from continuing his government consultancy. He was also forced to receive hormonal treatments to reduce his libido. And, in 1954, he died in 1954 by poisoning himself with cyanide.

Hodges, A. Alan Turing the enigma. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014.

“Facts About Suicide Among LGBTQ+ Young People.” The Trevor Project. Jan 1, 2024. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/article/facts-about-lgbtq-youth-suicide/

[2] Wilde, Oscar. Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Rupert Hart-Davis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Pg 116.

[3]  Frankel, Nicholas. “General Introduction.” In Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 14.

[4] Banned and Challenged Mystery Books to Read Now. PBS.org https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/specialfeatures/banned-and-challenged-mystery-books-to-read-now/#

[5] Unsigned notice of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Scots Observer, July 5, 1890; rpt. In Oscar Wilde: The Critical Heritage ed. Beckson, p 75.
Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Vol 46, July 1890.

[6] Frankel, Nicholas. “Textual Introduction.” In Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011.. Pg 39.

[7] The National Vigilance Association was a private British organization that focused on “for the enforcement and improvement of the laws for the repression of criminal vice and public immorality.” Records of the National Vigilance Association. https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/a97a5bcd-eb99-31df-b564-8e75a4c33fb7

[8] Adut, Ari. “A Theory of Scandal: Victorians, Homosexuality, and the Fall of Oscar Wilde.” American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 111 No. 1. July 2005. Pg 224.

[9] Frankel, Nicholas. “General Introduction.” In Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 7.

[10] Frankel, Nicholas. “General Introduction.” In Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 7.

[11] Ellman, Richard. “A Late Victorian Love Affair.” The New York Review of Books. August 4, 1977.
Oscar Wilde: A Collection of Critical Essays. Edited by Richard Ellman. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1969. Pg 314.

[12] Frankel, Nicholas. “General Introduction.” In Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 7.

[13] Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 9.0) May 1895. Trial of OSCAR FINGAL O’FFLAHARTIE WILLS WILDE (40), ALFRED WATERHOUSE SOMERSET TAYLOR (33) (t18950520-425). Available at: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18950520-425
Appleman, Laura I. “Oscar Wilde’s Long Tail: Framing Sexual Identity in the Law.” Maryland Law Review. Volume 70, Issue 4. Pp 985-1043. July, 2011.

[14] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 67.

[15] * After 1892, the green carnation Oscar Wilde famously sported was seen as suggesting that the wearer was a man who loved other men. It was in that year Wilde had a handful of friends wear them on their lapels to the opening night of his comedy Lady Windermere’s Fan. The symbolism is said to be based on the idea that a green carnation embodies the “unnatural.” And, in those days the first thing most people would think of when they heard that word would be “unnatural love,” i.e. same gender sex.

“Four Flowering Plants That Have Been Decidedly Queered.” Jstor Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/four-flowering-plants-decidedly-queered/

“Why the Green Carnation?” Oscar Wilde Tours. https://www.oscarwildetours.com/our-symbol-the-green-carnation/

Museum Selection.co.uk https://www.museumselection.co.uk/victorian-language-of-flowers/

Pearson, Rachel. “The Petals of Dorian Gray.” Boston University. December 4, 2011.

[16] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 67.

[17] Mrs. L Burke. The Illustrated Language of Flowers. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1867. Pg 36 and 52.

[18] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 79.

[19] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 78.

[20] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 79.

[21] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 96.

[22] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 97.

[23] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 67.

[24] Mrs. L Burke. The Illustrated Language of Flowers. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1867. Pg 35.
Pearson, Rachel. “The Petals of Dorian Gray.” Boston University. December 4, 2011.

[25] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 94, 96.

[26] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 96.

[27] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 100.

[28] Meyer, Ilan H. “Minority stress and mental health in gay men.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Washington Vol. 36, Issue 1. March, 1995.

[29] Meyer, Ilan H. “Minority stress and mental health in gay men.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Washington Vol. 36, Issue 1. March, 1995.

[30] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 101.

[31] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 102.

[32] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 102.

[33] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 102.

[34] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 102.

[35] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 80.

[36] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 150.

[37] Richard C. Friedman M.D. and Jennifer Downey M.D. “Internalized Homophobia and the Negative Therapeutic Reaction.” Guilford Journals, 2022. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/pdf/10.1521/pdps.2022.50.1.88

“10 Signs of Internalized Homophobia and Gaslighting.” May 21, 2020. Psychology Today.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-success/202005/10-signs-internalized-homophobia-and-gaslighting

[38] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 136.

[39] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 134.

[40] “10 Signs of Internalized Homophobia and Gaslighting.” May 21, 2020. Psychology Today.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-success/202005/10-signs-internalized-homophobia-and-gaslighting

[41] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 210.

[42] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 215.

[43] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 215.

[44] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 216.

[45] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 223.

[46] Adut, Ari. “A Theory of Scandal: Victorians, Homosexuality, and the Fall of Oscar Wilde.” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 111, No 1. July, 2005. Pg 217-221.

[47] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 67.

[48] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011.Pg 202.

[49] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011.Pg 202.

[50] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011.Pg 202.

[51] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray.  London: Simpkin, Marshall Hamilton, Kent and Co. LTD, 1891. Pp 241-242.

[52] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 201.

[53] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. P 188.

[54] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. P 242.

[55] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 241.

[56] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 241.

[57] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 241.

[58] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 248.

[59] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 248.

[60] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 248.

[61] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 248.

[62] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 249.

[63] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 249.

[64] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 249.

[65] Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition. Edited by Nicholas Frankel. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of The Harvard University Press, 2011. Pg 252.

Images:

Dorian Gray in Chains: Charles Ricketts-Public Domain https://archive.org/stream/pictureofdoriang00wildrich#page/n7/mode/2up

Controversial from the start: Unknown author – From part one of The Elmer Holmes Bobst Library’s online exhibition: Reading Wilde, “Querying Spaces: An Exhibition Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Trials of Oscar Wilde” Public Domain

Terms like “sexual orientation” didn’t exist: Photo by stephen packwood on Unsplash

Setting the scene with flowers: Photo by Cody Chan on Unsplash

Lilacs, the symbol of Dorian’s innocence: Photo by Dmitry Tulupov on Unsplash

Laburnum signifies Lord Henry’s nature:  MySeeds.co

Minority Stress: Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash

Dorian’s internalized homophobia: Photo by amir maleky on Unsplash

Dorian’s Denial: Photo by Saif71.com on Unsplash

Basil’s internalized homophobia: Photo by Callum Skelton on Unsplash

Gossip and Scandal – A source of Minority Stress: Photo by Joseph Corl on Unsplash

Psychological maladies – demoralization and guilt: Photo by Melanie Wasser on Unsplash

 Self-loathing – suicide ideation & behavior: Photo by Louis Galvez on Unsplash

Pride Flag: Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik.

FYI:

Pressley Unveils Bill to Confront Rise in Book Bans,
Ensure Inclusive Learning Environments

WASHINGTON – With the rise of book bans nationwide, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) unveiled the Books Save Lives Act to help ensure an inclusive learning environment and counteract the harm of book bans across the country. Rep Pressley unveiled the legislation in a floor speech earlier today, and later convened authors, advocates, and educators at the Library of Congress to discuss the negative impact book bans have on learning environments for vulnerable students. 

According to estimates, more than 3,000 books were banned in the 2022-2023 school year, a 33% increase from the previous school year. These bans overwhelmingly target books about race and racism, as well as books with LGBTQ+ characters. 

“Rather than honor the brilliance and diversity of our authors, illustrators, and librarians, Republicans are focused on further marginalizing people who already face systemic discrimination in our society – including people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, religious minorities, and people with disabilities – through discriminatory book bans,” said Rep. Pressley. “The Books Save Lives Act pushes back on this dangerous trend and reaffirms the need for representative literature by ensuring libraries nationwide maintain a diverse collection of books and classifying book bans as violations of federal civil rights laws. Every reader deserves to see themselves reflected in our literature – and our bill would help make that a reality for all. I am grateful to our partners in crafting this legislation, and I urge Congress to pass my bill without delay.”

The Books Save Lives Act would counteract the rise in book bans and help ensure an inclusive learning environment for all students. Specifically, the legislation would: 

• Ensure primary and secondary schools have a library with a trained librarian; 
• Require public libraries and school libraries to maintain a diverse collection of books; 
• Classify discriminatory book bans as violations of federal civil rights laws; and 
• Direct the Government Accountability Office to report on the effect of book bans on underrepresented communities. 

The legislation is co-sponsored by Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07), Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Donald M. Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), Kweisi Mfume (MD-07), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Summer Lee (PA-12), Glenn Ivey (MD-04), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Maxine Waters (CA- 43), Alma Adams (NC-12), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Stacey Plaskett (VI), Jahana Hayes (CT-05), Shontel Brown (OH-11), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Marc Veasey (TX-33), Steven Horsford (NV-04), and Lucy McBath (GA- 07). 

The legislation is endorsed by We Need Diverse Books, PFLAG National, Florida Freedom to Read Project, Color Of Change, EveryLibrary, National Education Association, and Human Rights Campaign. 

“As a student, the library was my second home. I discovered stories that opened up my world and my understanding of myself on the library shelves. I support the Books Save Lives Act because I want future young people to see themselves and their world reflected fully and accurately in their libraries,” said Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer. 

“As book bans have spread nationwide, they have disproportionately targeted books with BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ characters. 30 percent of recently banned books featured LGBTQIA+ characters or themes while 30 percent featured characters of color or themes on race. This is why We Need Diverse Books established the Books Save Lives initiative in 2022 to directly address the alarming rise of censorship, and this is also why we welcome the introduction of the Books Save Lives Act, sponsored by Congresswoman Pressley. This legislation is critically needed to ensure that school libraries reflect the diversity of our world and to combat the book banning movement that has already removed thousands of diverse titles from school shelves. BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ children are especially vulnerable to self-harm and have some of the highest rates of attempted suicide in the country. When these kids cannot see themselves in the books that they read, they learn the powerful lesson that their stories and their lives don’t matter. We must not only protect the freedom to read, we must also protect the children who need diverse stories the most— because we know that books save lives,” said Caroline Rihmond, We Need Diverse Books. 

“Banning books and education is an organized and funded effort that the Books Save Lives Act will put in check. PFLAG National is proud to endorse the Books Save Lives Act because every person deserves the joy that comes when you can find, learn, and be inspired by books about all kinds of topics and people,” said Brian K. Bond, CEO, PFLAG National 

“Florida Freedom to Read Project is proud to support this bill which will ensure that the expert curation of our libraries is inclusive of all the communities they serve. All Americans deserve the opportunity to see their lives reflected on the shelf and know that they are welcome here,” said Stephanie Ferrell, Florida Freedom to Read Project. 

Earlier this year, during Banned Books Week, Rep. Pressley visited the Turner Free Library in Randolph, Massachusetts to discuss the growing threat of book bans across the country and the need for accessible, representative literature. Rep. Pressley was joined at the roundtable by librarians, educators, and community members from Randolph and Milton. In April 2022 in a House Oversight Committee, Rep. Pressley discussed how banning books in schools harms future generations. 

#    #    #

 Get involved:
Support your public library.
Contact your state and congressional representatives, advocating for legislation
that ensures diverse collections of books and inclusive learning environments.

We can make a difference in the fight against book banning!

#on censorship

______________________________________________________

Endnotes:

[1] Duster, Chandelis. “States begin to push back on book bans – by banning them.” CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/04/us/states-fight-book-bans-reaj/index.html

[2] Duster, Chandelis. “States begin to push back on book bans – by banning them.” CNN.com
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/04/us/states-fight-book-bans-reaj/index.html

Robert, Lydia. “Laws restricting book bans are on the rise.” BanBookBans.com
https://www.banbookbans.com/news/theumasslowell-100923.html

Images:

House Chamber:Architect of the Capitol.

Congresswoman Pressley Unveils Bill:Pressley Press Packet

See the Full Text:Floor speech video linked in Pressley Press Packet

L
angston Hughes is best known as a defining figure of the Harlem Renaissance. And, he remains a significant literary figure today. Jason Reynolds’ picture book There Was a Party for Langston is evidence of Hughes’ enduring legacy.

It’s inspired by a photograph of Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dancing up a storm at a “fancy-foot, get-down, all-out bash” honoring the grand opening of the Langston Hughes Auditorium in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. And, not surprisingly – with the help of illustrators Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey – it’s positively pulchritudinous.

Though Hughes is shown as a child, There Was a Party for Langston is more than a Langston Hughes biography for young readers. It’s a celebration of his influence on generations of African American authors like Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Nikki Giovanni. And it does so with the jazzy, be-bopping rhythms Hughes’ poetry is known for.

Consistent with the photo that inspired it, Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka are the most prominently featured Black word makers who are shimmying and filled with dazzle. One spread shows Maya as a constellation, dancing in a deep blue sky.

There are also delightful verbal and visual allusions to both Angelou’s and Baraka’s works. And ABCs that become drums, “bumping, jumping, thumping like a heart the size of the whole wide world.”

There’s also a library of great African American authors who come joyfully alive on the spines of their books – smiling and laughing from the shelves where they rest. There Was a Party for Langston isn’t only a delightful tribute to master word maker Langston Hughes. It’s also an enchanting celebration of the “word-children” he inspired throughout his career.

This exquisite book also reminds us that, sadly, Hughes’ works have been banned. It speaks to the divisive nature of book banning, and how “some folks think by burning books they burn freedom.” But it also points out that “freedom stands up and laughs in their faces,” a call to action we should all answer.

There Was a Party for Langston is an invitation to a most marvelous party indeed, one that is not to be missed.

Who is Langston Hughes?

James Mercer Langston Hughes was an influential American poet, novelist, and playwright, as well as a columnist and social activist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the form of literary art known as jazz poetry. Hughes was also the first Black American to earn a living exclusively from his writing and public lectures.

He’s best known, however, as a defining figure of the 1920s’ Harlem Renaissance.[1]

What is the Harlem Renaissance,
and what impact did Hughes have on the movement?

The Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem was the first major northern destination during what is known as the Great Black Migration – when waves of Southern Blacks began to move north, starting around 1910. Augmented by the Great Black Migration, Harlem produced a cultural, artistic, and political blossoming of Black excellence. This movement included Black luminaries such as W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes of course, and Josephine Baker.[2]

From the 1920s to the mid-1930s, the Harlem Renaissance was a golden age for African American writers, artists and musicians. It gave artists pride in, and control over, how the Black experience was represented in American culture.  In doing so, it set the stage for the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 70s.[3]

In 1926, Langston Hughes published what came to be considered a manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance, an essay titled The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.[4] In this essay, Hughes describes Black artists rejecting their racial identity as “the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America.”[5] He declared that rather than ignoring their identity:

We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.[6]

 Hughes is admonishing Black artists in America to stop copying whites, because they’ll never create anything new that way. He’s saying they should be proud of who they are, proud to be Black. And, that they should draw from Black culture. This clarion call about the importance of pursuing art from a Black perspective is not only the philosophy undergirding much of Hughes’ work, it’s the vision at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance.[7]

Pride in African American identity
and its diverse culture permeates Hughes’ work.

Langston Hughes was one of the few prominent Black writers who championed racial consciousness as a source of inspiration for Black artists. He protested social conditions, confronted racial stereotypes, and broadened African America’s image of itself. He was a “people’s poet,” seeking to reeducate both audience and artist by making the theory of the Black aesthetic a reality.[8]

The racial consciousness and cultural nationalism Hughes stressed was one devoid of self-hate. His poem My People provides is but one example:

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.[9]

Hughes’ fiction and poetry depicted the lives of working-class Blacks in America, portrayed as full of struggle, music as well as laughter and abounding joy. Pride in the African American identity and its diverse culture permeates his work.

In his own words, he describes his poetry as “racial in theme and treatment, derived from the life I know.”[10] Hughes characterizes his poetry as being about:

…workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters on Lenox Avenue in New York, or Seventh Street in Washington or South State in Chicago—people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter—and pawning that suit before the Fourth of July. 

He further states that in many of them, he tries “to grasp and hold some of the meanings and rhythms of jazz.”[11]

What is Jazz Poetry?

Rooted in Black communities, jazz poetry like the music it’s named for, alludes to the lived Black experience in America. Technically speaking, jazz poetry can take a couple of forms. It can be strictly about jazz. Or… it can take its structure from jazz-like rhythms, as well as demonstrate the feel of improvisation.[12]

As noted above, Hughes was a vocal proponent of racial consciousness. He considered jazz and the blues to be uniquely African American art forms, in that they both spurned the desire for acceptance and assimilation by white culture. Both forms rejoiced in Black heritage and creativity.

The formal devices, rhyme, anaphora and rhetoric, as well as his integration of the blues, emerge from a cultural tradition that, up until Hughes, had never had a voice in poetry. And, the blues, rather than wishing away hardship, elevated the tribulations of the workaday African American into art. In that sense, Hughes’ use of these forms was itself political. Not just the subject matter of his poems.[13]

For Hughes, jazz was a way of life. He enjoyed listening to it at nightclubs. He collaborated with musicians from Monk to Mingus. And, he frequently held readings accompanied by jazz combos. He also wrote a children’s book called The First Book of Jazz.

No matter what the subject, Hughes’ writing has jazz in its voice. He often incorporated syncopated rhythms, and jive language or looser phrasing to mimic the improvisatory nature of jazz. The verse of other poems reads like the lyrics of a blues song. The result? It was as close as you could get to spelling out jazz.[14]

The Weary Blues, first published in 1925, is but one example:

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
 O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
 “Ain’t got nobody in all this world,
 Ain’t got nobody but ma self.
I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’
And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more—
“I got the Weary Blues
And I can’t be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can’t be satisfied—
I ain’t happy no mo’
And I wish that I had died.”
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.[15]

Structured like a blues song, this poem is divided into two stanzas, each organized around a set of quoted lyrics. While the quoted lyrics represent the “verses” of a blues song, the other lines function as the instrumental portions.

And syncopation, the rhythm at the heart of jazz music, appears throughout The Weary Blues. The varying lengths of the quoted lyrics play against the underlying four-beat rhythm of the unquoted lines. The counterpoint between these two rhythms creates a sense of syncopation.[16]

Finally, The Weary Blues is describing a Black piano player performing a slow, sad blues song, a performance that takes place in a club in Harlem. The poem is a meditation on how the piano player’s song channels the hardship and injustice of the Black experience in America, and transforms it into something cathartic and beautiful. Thus, it reflects on the immense beauty of black art… and the prodigious pain that is at its core.[17]

Langston’s Legacy

 Hughes frequently offered advice to young Black writers, and introduced them to other influential people in the literature and publishing communities.  This group includes Alice Walker, who he is credited with discovering and getting their first story in print. One of their earliest stories caught Hughes’ attention and he included it in 1967 anthology The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers.[18]

Loren Mitchell, another of these young Black writers, observed that, “Langston set a tone, a standard of brotherhood and friendship and cooperation, for all of us to follow.”[19]

Hughes’ artistic influence can be seen in jazz poets like Sonia Sanchez, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Jack Kerouac.

The influence of his message is reflected in others’ work as well. The title of Lorraine Hansberry’s play Raisin in the Sun is derived from Hughes’ 1951 poem Dream Deferred (originally titled Harlem):

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?[20]

Echoes of Hughes’ Dream Deferred can also be heard in Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic I Have a Dream speech.[21]

What’s fantastic about Hughes’ work and movements like the Harlem Renaissance is the vast net of influence he clearly cast, both during and after his career. Every reader has been influenced by Hughes’ work in some way. His impact endures, as readers and writers are introduced to his work, school children listen to and read I Have a Dream, and even musicians consider his words.

Langston Hughes stands at the pinnacle of literary relevance among Black people. He occupies this position in the memory of his people because he recognized that “we possess within ourselves a great reservoir of physical and spiritual strength.”[22] And he used his talent to reflect this message back to the people.[23]

The significance of Hughes’ enduring legacy can be seen literally carved into the wall of the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall, in the form of a quote from his 1926 poem I, Too:

I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.[24]

There’s also the auditorium in Harlem’s Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture named for Langston Hughes. A photograph taken at its grand opening – one of Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dancing up a storm – inspired Jason Reynolds to write a book about this event.

Reynolds’ book There Was a Party for Langston is also a significant part of Langston Hughes’ legacy. This dazzling collaboration will have children rushing to their libraries to learn more about Hughes, as well as the other “word makers” named in its pages.

Books like Reynolds’ and the Pumphrey Brothers’ are more important than ever. Because, the more we know about each other, the better we understand each other. Understanding each other helps us realize that we have more in common than many of us have been led to believe, that we’re all just human beings trying to make our way in a complicated world. And this realization makes the world a less scary place – one where we’re more inclined to work together rather than Other and vilify those who don’t look like us, or have life experiences different than our own.

Endnotes:

[1] Francis, Ted (2002). Realism in the Novels of the Harlem Renaissance. (https://books.google.com/books?id=82XIw4ykVAAC&pg=PA2 8)

“Langston Hughes.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes#:~:text=Although%20Hughes%20had%20trouble%20with,received%20from%20average%20black%20people.

[2] Datcher, Michael. “Harlem at Four.”  New York: Random House Studio, 2023.

[3] “Harlem Renaissance.” February 14, 2024. History.com https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance

[4] “Langston Hughes.” National Museum of African American History & Culture. Smithsonian. https://nmaahc.si.edu/langston-hughes

[5] Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69395/the-negro-artist-and-the-racial-mountain

[6] Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69395/the-negro-artist-and-the-racial-mountain

[7] Kettler, Sara.“Langston Hughes’ Impact on the Harlem Renaissance.” August 25, 2020. Biography.com https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/langston-hughes-harlem-renaissance

[8] Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914–1967, I Dream a World (https://books.google.com/books?id=qclO9rdN1XIC&pg=PA11), Oxford University Press 1988, vol. 2, p. 297.

West, Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, 2003, p. 162

[9] Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914–1967, I Dream a World (https://books.google.com/books?id=qclO9rdN1XIC&pg=PA11), Oxford University Press 1988, vol. 2, p. 297

My People” in The Crisis (October 1923) pg 162.

[10] Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” Poetry Foundation.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69395/the-negro-artist-and-the-racial-mountain

[11] Hughes, Langston. “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” Poetry Foundation.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69395/the-negro-artist-and-the-racial-mountain

[12] Jackson, Ashawnta. “What is Jazz Poetry?” Jstor Daily. May 77, 2021.

Wallenstein, Barry (1993). “JazzPoetry/Jazz-Poetry/’JazzPoetry’???”. African American Review. 27 (4): 665–671.doi:10.2307/3041904 . JSTOR 3041904 . (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3041904) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3041904)

[13] “A Reading Guide to Langston Hughes.” poets.org https://poets.org/text/reading-guide-langston-hughes

Gross, Rebecca. “Jazz Poetry & Langston Hughes.” National Endowment for the Arts. https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2014/jazz-poetry-langston-hughes

[14] Gross, Rebecca. “Jazz Poetry & Langston Hughes.” National Endowment for the Arts. https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2014/jazz-poetry-langston-hughes

[15] Hughes, Langston. “The Weary Blues.” From The Weary Blues New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. This poem is in the public domain.

[16] “Langston Hughes and The Weary Blues.” Girl in Blue Music.

“The Weary Blues.” PoemAnalysis.com  https://poemanalysis.com/langston-hughes/the-weary-blues/

[17] “The Weary Blues.” PoemAnalysis.com  https://poemanalysis.com/langston-hughes/the-weary-blues/

[18] “Alice Walker.” New Georgia Encyclopedia. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/alice-walker-b-1944/

Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914–1967, I Dream a World (https://books.google.com/books?id=qclO9rdN1XIC&pg=PA11), Oxford University Press 1988, vol. 2, p. 413

[19] Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914–1967, I Dream a World (https://books.google.com/books?id=qclO9rdN1XIC&pg=PA11), Oxford University Press 1988, vol. 2, p. 409.

[20] Hughes, Langston. Harlem. Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem

[21] Eschner, Kat. “How Langston Hughes’ Dreams Inspired MLK’s.” Smithsonian Magazine, February 1, 2017.

[22] “Langston Hughes.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes#:~:text=Although%20Hughes%20had%20trouble%20with,received%20from%20average%20black%20people.

[23] Lewis, Jessi. “Langston Hughes is Still Powerful on His 115^th Birthday.” Feb 2, 2017. Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/langston-hughes-is-still-powerful-on-his-115th-birthday/#:~:text=Yusef%20Komunyaaka%2C%20Sonia%20Sanchez%2C%20Jack,his%20poetry%20with%20jazz%20accompaniment.

“Langston Hughes.” Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes#:~:text=Although%20Hughes%20had%20trouble%20with,received%20from%20average%20black%20people.

[24] Ward, David C. “What Langston Hughes’ Powerful Poem ‘I, Too’ Tells Us About America’s Past and Present.” Smithsonian Magazine. September 22, 2016. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/what-langston-hughes-powerful-poem-i-too-americas-past-present-180960552/#:~:text=In%20large%20graven%20letters%20on,I%20am%20the%20darker%20brother.

Images:

Jason Reynolds and the Pumphrey brothers at the ALA conference.

Who is Langston Hughes: Langston Hughes, photograph by Jack Delano, 1942. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Langston-Hughes#/media/1/274926/11795

What is the Harlem Renaissance: The Cotton Club, Harlem, New York City, early 1930s. Science History Images/Alamy.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Harlem-Renaissance-American-literature-and-art

Pride in African American identity: “Harlem Renaissance ushered in new era of black pride.” USA Today. February 3, 2015.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/03/black-history-harlem-renaissance/22825245/

What is Jazz Poetry:  Dust jacket of The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes. Illustration by Miguel Covarrubias. Published by Knopf, New York, 1926.

Langston’s Legacy: Head of Langston Hughes. Teodoro Ramos Blanco. Sculpture. 1930s. The Schomburg Legacy Exhibition.

T
his Juneteenth, we celebrate Ida B. Wells-Barnett, whose lifelong crusade to make lynching a federal crime finally came to fruition on March 29, 2022 – 124 years and 21 presidents later.[1]  Wells-Barnett was an educator, investigative journalist, and early civil rights activist during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[2]

Lamentably, it’s become exceedingly difficult to tell stories like Ida’s and make her writings known in American schools. Because more and more states are introducing legislation that restricts how teachers can discuss racism, sexism, and issues of systemic inequality in their classrooms.

Forty-four states have done so or have taken other steps that would limit how teachers can discuss these issues, since January 2021.[3]

And there’s a long history to this type of tactic – attempting to ban knowledge and control the historical narrative. During the days of slavery, it was illegal to teach enslaved persons to read – but secret schools were organized in hidden places at night.

During the Civil Rights movement, terror organizations like the KKK threatened organizers against spreading “dangerous” ideas – but organizers refused to capitulate.[4]

And today, extremist groups like Moms for Liberty threaten librarians with doxing or even gun violence for making books addressing racism in America accessible.[5]

But, it’s still be possible for young people to learn our nation’s true history. If not in school, from books, music, or on other avenues… websites like ThisBookisBanned.com, for example, whose organizers stand in solidarity with teachers and librarians facing this heinous legislation and threatened violence.[6]

Today, we’re seeing to it that Ida B. Wells-Barnett is celebrated. And, we’re doing our part to ensure that her anti-lynching campaign for racial justice doesn’t get swept under the proverbial rug – as much as the book banners at Moms for Liberty would like to see that happen.

Born into slavery

Ida Bell Wells was born into slavery on July 16,1862 in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and freed by the Emancipation Proclamation.[7] During the Reconstruction era, her parents were involved with politics and the democratization of education. Her father belonged to the Freedmen’s Aid Society, and helped start a school for newly freed enslaved people.[8]

Throughout her late teens, Ida was a teacher at Marshall and Tate County schools in rural Mississippi.[9] After her parents’ death, she and her siblings moved to Memphis, Tennessee to live with a relative.

At this time, she was hired by the Shelby County school system, and attended sessions at Fisk University – a historically Black college in Nashville – during her summer vacations.  She also studied Lemoyne-Owen College – a historically Black college in Memphis.[10]

“I have a seat and I intend to keep it.”[11]

Decades before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Ida B. Wells (not yet Barnett) resisted giving up her seat on a passenger train going from Memphis to Woodstock, Tennessee. While Parks was arrested, Wells was not. She was, however, manhandled, and writes about the incident in her autobiography:

One day while riding back to my school I took a seat in the ladies’ coach of the train as usual. There were no jim crow cars then. But ever since the repeal of the Civil Rights Bill by the United States Supreme Court in 1877* there had been efforts all over the South to draw the color line on the railroads.

 When the train started and the conductor came along to collect tickets, he took my ticket, then handed it back to me and told me that he couldn’t take my ticket there. I thought that if he didn’t want the ticket, I wouldn’t bother about it so went on reading. In a little while when he finished taking tickets, he came back and told me I would have to go in the other car. I refused, saying that the forward car was a smoker, and as I was in the ladies’ car I proposed to stay. He tried to drag me out of the seat, but the moment he caught hold of my arm I fastened my teeth in the back of his hand.

 I had braced my feet against the seat in front and was holding to the back, and as he had already been badly bitten he didn’t try it again by himself. He went forward and got the baggage-man and another man to help him and of course they succeeded in dragging me out. They were encouraged to do this by the attitude of the white ladies and gentlemen in the car; some of them even stood on the seats so they could get a good view and continued applauding the conductor for his brave stand.

By this time the train had stopped at the first station. When I saw that they were determined to drag me into the smoker, which was already filled with colored people and those who were smoking, I said I would get off the train rather than go in… which I did. Strangely, I held onto my ticket all this time… [12]

And then, she sued the Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern railroad company.[13] Surprisingly, the court decided in Wells’ favor, ordering the railroad company to pay damages. Needless to say, the railroad appealed the case to the Tennessee Supreme Court, and not so surprisingly, the decision was reversed. [14]

Suffragist and founding orgnaizer of the NAACP

Years later, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a founding organizer of the NAACP.[15] She was also instrumental in the establishment of the National Association of Colored Women’s Club, an organization which was created to address issues surrounding women’s suffrage and civil rights.[16]

As significant as these contributions are to civil rights and American history generally, Wells-Barnett’s name is most frequently associated with her campaign to make lynching a federal crime.

The Peoples Grocery Lynching

Just at the point when Wells-Barnett realized she could make a living from her newspaper, the Free Speech, the lynching that changed her life occurred. On March 9, 1892, she learned that Thomas Moss (whose daughter was her godchild), had been murdered – to be more precise, lynched – along with two of his employees, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart.

Moss was a black man who owned Peoples Grocery, a successful grocery store in Memphis, Tennessee. As such, his store and its owner were seen as a threat by the white grocer whose store had served the community before Moss opened his.

The incident was sparked when a racially charged mob grew out of a fight between a Black and a white youth over a game of marbles near Moss’ grocery.

In short, adults got involved, violence ensued, and about 30 Black individuals were taken from their homes and jailed – among them Moss, McDowell, and Stewart, as well as the Black adolescent who was involved in the marble game that triggered the episode.

In the wee hours of the night, Moss, McDowell, and Stewart were dragged from their cells by 75 men, transported to a railroad yard outside the city’s limits, and shot to death. Given that Moss, McDowell, and Stewart were the only victims of this extralegal violence, there is little doubt that it was punishment for becoming an economic competitor to the white grocery store owner.[17] 

Wells-Barnett was not in Memphis when this atrocity occurred. But, the leader in the Free Speech for that week called for the Black population to follow Moss’ dying words (reported in a newspaper the day after his death), “tell my people to go West – there is no justice for them here.”[18]

And, the Black community did just that. Within two months, six thousand people had abandoned Memphis. And, every type of business began to feel “this silent resentment of the outrage, and failure of the authorities to punish the lynchers.”[19]

On May 21, 1892, Ida B. Wells-Barnett published an impassioned editorial about the recent lynchings in the Free Speech. In response to her article, a mob burned down her press while she was attending a conference in New York City. And, her life was threatened if she were ever to return to Memphis.

In light of these threats, she remained in New York City until 1893, when she relocated to Chicago where she lived for the rest of her life. [20]

Her lifelong campaign begins

Wells-Barnett explicitly attributes the Peoples Grocery lynching with changing the course of her life. And, in response to the frequency of lynchings throughout the American South, she dedicated her life to documenting these horrific occurrences.

She published her research in a pamphlet titled Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, prefacing this searing work with the words:

It is with no pleasure I have dipped my hands in the corruption here exposed. Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.[21]

Southern Horrors was the culmination of her intensive investigative work, providing eye-witness accounts, as well as statistics for lynchings reported in newspapers across both the South and the North.

It was groundbreaking, providing evidence that white men were rarely punished for sexual violence they perpetrated against Black women, while Black men were murdered by mobs for consensual sexual relations with white women.

She undermined the notion that lynchings were in response to rape, by pointing out that this accusation was levied at an unrealistic percentage of all victims. Wells-Barnett also challenged the fundamental assumption that it was only Black men who had been subject to lynchings. She revealed that Black women were also the victims of this heinous act.

In 1895, she published the first documented statistical report on lynching – A Red Record. With this book’s publication, she not only became one of the first prominent Black women journalists in the U.S., she was one of the first data reporters decades before the discipline formally existed.[22]

Ida B Wells-Barnett goes to The White House

And, Wells-Barnett took her campaign to William McKinley’s White House. During her visit, she gave the president a petition appealing to him for national anti-lynching law, which stated:

For nearly twenty years lynching crimes, which stand side by side with Armenian and Cuban outrages, have been committed and permitted by this Christian nation. Nowhere in the civilized world save the U.S. of America do men, possessing all civil and political power, go out in bands of 50 and 5,000 to hunt down, shoot, hang or burn to death a single individual, unarmed and absolutely powerless. Statistics show that nearly 10,000 American citizens have been lynched in the past 20 years. To our appeals for justice the stereotyped reply has been that the government could not interfere in a state matter. Postmaster Baker’s case was a federal matter, pure and simple. He died at his post of duty in defense of his country’s honor, as truly as did ever a soldier on the field of battle. We refuse to believe this country, so powerful to defend its citizens abroad, is unable to protect its citizens at home. Italy and China have been indemnified by this government for the lynching of their citizens. We ask that the government do as much for its own.[23]

During the same period, she also lobbied Congress for the national anti-lynching law introduced by Illinois Congressman William E. Lorimer. But, to no avail on both fronts.

That didn’t stop her crusade, however. Wells-Barnett turned next to President Theodore Roosevelt, who merely addressed the issue through appeals to public morality and sentiment rather than actual federal reforms.

After that was President William Howard Taft, who wanted to leave the issue to the states but promised his personal support once his presidency was over. And, the anti-lynching campaign got even less aid during President Woodrow Wilson’s administration.

President Warren G. Harding supported the Anti-Lynching Bill that was introduced in Congress during the Wilson administration but had been halted by filibuster. And, he delivered a speech that condemned lynching. But public response was largely negative, indicating the difficult road that lay ahead for anti-lynching activists.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett died on March 25, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. Though lynching still raged and the legacy of her tireless dedication was not fully realized, her activism was instrumental in establishing the space for future discussion to take place.[24]

On May 4, 2020, she was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize, “for her outstanding and courageous reporting on the horrific and vicious violence against African Americans.”[25]

Finally, on March 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the anti-lynching measure she had worked so hard to make happen into law, rendering lynching a federal hate crime.[26]

So, we’re celebrating Ida B. Wells-Barnett in observance of Juneteenth. And, to help keep her story alive, here are some of her works to download. [Be advised, given the subject matter this material contains disturbing images and accounts of violence]:

Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All its Phases.
Eye-witness accounts of lynchings reported in newspapers
across both the South and the North.

A Red Record.
The first documented statistical report on lynching.

Mob Rule in New Orleans.
An examination of the dynamics of racial violence
and lynching during the Jim Crow Era.

And for all you educators out there, here’s a lesson plan to download,
Ida B. Wells and the Long Crusade to Outlaw Lynching,
designed by RetroReport, a fabulous source for classroom resources.

#civil rights movement        #Juneteenth             #banned authors

Endnotes:

[1] “Ida B. Wells and the Long Crusade to Outlaw Lynching.” February 15, 2024. RetroReport.org
https://retroreport.org/has-lesson-plan/ida-b-wells-and-the-long-crusade-to-outlaw-lynching-2/?utm_source=Retro+Report+Education&utm_campaign=c212e1f834-MAR11_DOUBLEV_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_64a84ba2bf-c212e1f834-357769000&mc_cid=c212e1f834&mc_eid=bd14da2bcd

[2] “Letter from Ida B. Wells-Barnett to President Woodrow Wilson.” March 26, 1918. DocsTeach from the National Archives. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/ida-b-wells-wilson

[3] Schwartz, Sarah. “Map: Where Critical Race Theory Is Under Attack.” June 6, 2024. EducationWeek. https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/map-where-critical-race-theory-is-under-attack/2021/06

[4] IBWEP Statement on Recent Attacks Against Critical Race Theory in Schools.” The Ida B. Wells Education Project Blog. https://www.idabwellseducationproject.org/ibwep-blog

[5] Altschuler, Glenn C. “Six reasons why Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization.” July 9, 2023. The Hill. https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4086179-six-reasons-why-moms-for-liberty-is-an-extremist-organization/

[6] IBWEP Statement on Recent Attacks Against Critical Race Theory in Schools.” The Ida B. Wells Education Project Blog. https://www.idabwellseducationproject.org/ibwep-blog

[7] Norwood, Arlisha R. “Ida B. Wells. Barnett.” National Women’s History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

[8] Levesque, Faron. “Ida B. Wells and People’s Grocery.” The MIT Press Reader. https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/ida-b-wells-and-peoples-grocery/

Heather-Lea, Patricia. “Ida Wells an inspiring heroine for international Women’s Day.” Addison County Independent. https://web.archive.org/web/20201104023730/https://addisonindependent.com/letter-editor-ida-wells-inspiring-heroine-international-womens-day

[9] Bay, Mia. To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells.  New York: Hill and Wang, a division of Farraar, Strauss and Tiroux, 2009. Pg 34.

[10] Levesque, Faron. “Ida B. Wells and People’s Grocery.” The MIT Press Reader. https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/ida-b-wells-and-peoples-grocery/

[11]“Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad Company v Ida B. Wells.” Digital Public Library of America. https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

[12] Wells, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Edited by Alfreda M. Duster. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1970. Pg 18-19.

*The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was, among other things, designed to provide all citizens regardless of color access to public accommodations. Wells was in error, however, about the date when this act was held unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. That actually occurred in 1883.

[13] “A legal brief for Ida B. Wells’ lawsuit against Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railroad Company before the state Supreme Court, 1885.” Digital Public Library of America.
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

[14] “A legal brief for Ida B. Wells’ lawsuit against Chesapeake, Ohio, and Southwestern Railroad Company before the state Supreme Court, 1885.” Digital Public Library of America.
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

[15] Sullivan, Patricia. Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the making of the Civil Rights movement. New York: The New Press, 2009.

[16] Norwood, Arlisha R. “Ida B. Wells. Barnett.” National Women’s History Museum. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/ida-b-wells-barnett

[17] Mitchell, Damon. “The People’s Grocery Lynching, Memphis, Tennessee.” Jstor Daily. January 24, 2018. https://daily.jstor.org/peoples-grocery-lynching/

Wells, Ida B. “Lynch Law in all its Phases.” February 13, 1893. Voices Of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project. https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wells-lynch-law-speech-text/

[18] Wells, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Edited by Alfreda M. Duster. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1970. Pg 50-51.

[19] Wells, Ida B. “Lynch Law in all its Phases.” February 13, 1893. Voices Of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project. https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wells-lynch-law-speech-text/

[20] Mobley, Tianna. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Anti-lynching and the White House.” The White House Historical Association. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/ida-b-wells-barnett-anti-lynching-and-the-white-house

Little, Becky. “When Ida B. Wells Took on Lynching, Threats Forced Her to Leave Memphis.” May 18, 2023. History.com https://www.history.com/news/ida-b-wells-lynching-memphis-chicago

[21] Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. New York: The New York Age Print, 1892.

[22] Mobley, Tianna. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Anti-lynching and the White House.” The White House Historical Association. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/ida-b-wells-barnett-anti-lynching-and-the-white-house

[23] Cleveland Gazette, 9 April 1898. Reprinted in Herbert Aptheker, ed., A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, 2, (The Citadel Press: New York, 1970), 798. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/56

[24] Mobley, Tianna. “Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Anti-lynching and the White House.” The White House Historical Association. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/ida-b-wells-barnett-anti-lynching-and-the-white-house

[25] “Ida B. Wells,” Special Citations and Awards (The Pulitzer Prizes, 2020) . https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/ida-b-wells

[26] “Remarks by President Biden at Signing of H.R. 55, the ‘Emmett Till Antilynching Act.’” March 29, 2020. The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/29/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-h-r-55-the-emmett-till-antilynching-act/

Images:

Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Ida B. Wells Papers, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Born into Slavery: Historic Charleston.org https://www.historiccharleston.org/research/photograph-collection/detail/slave-cabin-with-child-in-doorway/8C433E91-F909-47F7-AF1F-459819142111

I have a seat and I intend to keep it: Digital Public Library of America. https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/ida-b-wells-and-anti-lynching-activism/sources/1113

Suffragist and founding organizer of the NAACP: Capper’s Weekly (Topeka, Kansas) 01 August 1914, pg. 3.

The Peoples Grocery Lynching: Thomas Moss family-Ida B. Wells Papers, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Her lifelong campaign begins: Cover of Southern Horrors. Public Domain.

Ida B Wells-Barnett goes to The White House: President William McKinley.https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/william-mckinley/

Juneteenth Flag: Lisa Jeanne Graf, who modified the original Juneteenth flag created in 1997 by Ben Haith, the founder of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. Alvarez, Beatrice. “What Does Juneteenth Celebrate? The History of the Holiday.” PBS, 15 June 2022, www.pbs.org/articles/learn-about-and-celebrate-juneteenth/.

I
n this edition, we talk with Federico Erebia about how young readers being able to see themselves in books like Pedro & Daniel can literally be life-saving. And, how it offers hope for those who may be dealing with stigma and abuse.

Our freedom to read has been under assault for what seems like an eternity. And, the books being banned are consistently those of marginalized voices. Books with diverse characters, primarily characters of color and LGBTQA+ characters were overwhelmingly targeted. And continue to be.

And, the books being banned are consistently those of marginalized voices. Books with diverse characters, primarily characters of color and LGBTQA+ characters were overwhelmingly targeted.[1] And continue to be.

Throughout this collection of conversations with authors, we talk about the power of books, and the question of why it’s important for stories containing characters that have diverse backgrounds and life experience to be told.

In considering this vital question, we also touch on the dangers of restricting or erasing these narratives – what damage is being done when books about diversity are banned and reading is restricted?

Needless to say, each of the authors in this series brings s different perspective and life experience to the conversation, adding nuance and depth to the combined answer of why it’s important for stories about diverse lives to be told… as well as the dangers that arise when they’re expunged from our national discourse.

Federico Erebia is a retired physician, woodworker, author, poet, and illustrator. He received the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Exceptional New Writer.

Other distinctions for his debut novel, Pedro & Daniel (Levine Querido 2023) include: 2024 Ohioana Book Award – Finalist; 2024 Massachusetts Book Award – Longlist; 2024 Crystal Kite Award – Finalist; 2024 Américas Book Award – Commended Title; 2024 Bank Street BEST BOOK; 2023 Kirkus BEST BOOK; and starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness.

He and his husband live near Boston, Massachusetts.

Pedro & Daniel follows two gay, neurodivergent, Mexican American brothers, over a 24 year span, who experience joy and laughter, despite years of abuse and oppression.[2]

Research has shown how important it is for children to see themselves in their books, on TV, and in movies. It’s also vital for kids to see others who are unlike themselves: kids from different backgrounds, races, ethnicities, socioeconomics, and family structures.

When there are fewer unknowns, there is less to fear. [3]

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First, I’d like to say that Pedro & Daniel is a heartbreaking and heartwarming book at the same time. Thank you for writing it for, as your dedication says, all the kids who aren’t seen for their worth, beauty, and potential. Why is important for the stories like the one you wrote to be told?

There are many ways to answer that question. But ultimately, I think that readers like to either identify parts of themselves in the characters that they’re reading, and/or to empathize with them.

I certainly have never read a book like mine, primarily not just the story itself or the societal issues that I mention in the book. But also the structure of the book, and going back and forth between different voices – also third person versus first person. And I even break the fourth wall occasionally, which is subtle, so I don’t think a lot of people necessarily pick up on it.

But, I wrote a story that I would like to read over-and-over myself, and I have read over-and-over. Because for me, it checks off a lot of things. In terms of storytelling itself, and also giving voice to characters that are rarely seen in any literature —  let alone Chicano literature for children. So, I thought it was important to have that available for people… so people can see themselves in these characters.

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It’s an incredibly important thing for people to see themselves.

In an interesting way, in my mind I thought people would identify more with the intersectionality of being both a gay and person of color and/or neuro-divergence. But, so many people are identifying with the social issues, such as the colorism or the domestic violence – which can be separate from child abuse. I’ve heard from so many people who really are thankful that these things are in a book, that address some the things they dealt with as children.

I would have loved to read this book as a twelve-year-old. I think a lot of it depends on the individual, but I don’t think it’s targeted for any particular age group. I know that a lot of adults would appreciate it, and do appreciate it. So, I don’t necessarily want to rely on the Young Adult classification for recommending it to people.

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Absolutely…  a good story is a good story is a good story. And Pedro & Daniel resonates on all kinds of levels. To your point about wishing you had a book like this at twelve or thirteen…  clearly my perspective is from book banning and banned books, and a lot of the books that are being targeted right now are exactly what twelve and thirteen-year-olds need – as you just expressed. So, because my viewpoint is from that of banned books, let’s flip that previous question on its head. What damage do you think is being done by squashing access to books like the one you just wrote.

Another terrific question with so many different answers. Ultimately… we’ve all heard that books save lives. And books do give an outlet to children to go into a different world, one similar to theirs (but is not their own). Seeing that there’s abuse in Pedro and Daniel’s house allows children who also have abuse in their house to still feel some safety while dealing with these issues.

My main concern, one that I hope isn’t reaching children, but I know it is – is that they hear these books are bad, and  internalize what they’re hearing about the characters and the books themselves. And that’s just not right. It’s not fair.

.

And, the fact that you were a doctor is another interesting aspect of your background, one that goes a long way in supporting the idea that kids actually benefit from reading books that contain such material. That it’s developmentally appropriate for twelve and thirteen-year-olds to be reading about the types of experiences you depict, those that often get banned under the auspices of protecting children. You being a doctor brings some gravitas to the idea that this assertion is simply baloney.

Sure, for various reasons. The fact that despite everything I went through, not just the abuse but the colorism, the homophobia, and the racism, I was still able to be successful and become a doctor — and, in some ways, study what is needed for kids to develop in ways that will help them come out of their shells.

Everything I studied when I studied medicine, I found fascinating. When I studied pediatrics, I wanted to be a pediatrician. When I studied cardiology, I wanted to be a cardiologist. I have that kind of mentality. I really dive into whatever it is that I’m doing at the moment. In fact, I’m doing it right now with writing.

I’m really surrounding myself in every way with access to authors and books, and stories and storytelling, in a way that I hadn’t done when my focus was woodworking or medicine or whatever.

.

I tend to do the same thing… if it’s interesting to me, I’ll go way down that rabbit hole.

It’s significant that you expressly state in your book… yes, “this work contains descriptions of abuse, physical abuse and domestic abuse,” noting that these depictions are necessary to show how children are affected by such events. I want to note this because your explanation nullifies one of the reasons given for banning books, that of “protecting” children from “disturbing” material.

The point is that children are living this from the hundreds of thousands, if not the millions, around the world on a daily basis. And, they should be able to see themselves in a book and come away from it with an understanding that they’re not alone. That they are beautiful. That they do have worth. And that, hopefully, things will get better in time.

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And you’re saying this not only as a doctor with an understanding of childhood development, but as someone who has lived through such experiences. Given those credentials, your insight carries significantly more weight than when a person like me makes such a statement.

It’s wonderful that you’re giving me the platform to say it.

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I thoroughly enjoyed the book. After the first couple of vignettes, it’s clear that despite its Young Adult label, Pedro & Daniel isn’t just for kids. This is good stuff for readers of any age.

As you may know, the very first words that I wrote are the last fifty words in the book, the fifty precious words – those on the very last page across from the picture of myself with my brother. I started writing it as part of a writing contest called “Fifty Precious Words.” So I wrote those fifty precious words, and that became a picture book manuscript that I sent to an editor.

Then he asked me for more work, which ultimately became other chapters in the first part of the book. They were all picture book manuscripts, and then he asked me if I would combine them… And that’s how the novel came to be. So, it’s an unusual origin story. And, I thought it would be interesting to have the original fifty words be the last fifty words of the book itself.

But when I finished the first draft of the novel, I realized I hadn’t addressed the elephant in the room, which is the mother’s abuse. I really needed to tackle that conundrum. I didn’t want it to come across as if, all of a sudden, she’s abusive. That wouldn’t make sense. So, since the brothers are five and six at the beginning of the book, it made sense to put the reader in media res… in a situation where they are experiencing what the brothers are experiencing as their mother is approaching them to hurt them.

It tells the reader many things, among other things that this is already their life. They already fear their mother. And there are implications that a lot of that abuse is because of their skin color and/or their presentation of sexuality, which at five and six they don’t understand – there’s no way they could understand, especially in 1968.

I found that very interesting. So, when I started writing that very first sentence (it’s 175 words long), I really needed to put the reader in a place where they were experiencing what the brothers were experiencing without a way to escape. No periods, just commas. And, just as the brothers aren’t able to escape, the reader can’t escape. And I’m very happy with the way that turned out at the very beginning of the book.

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And the devise works fantastically – as you said, drawing the reader in to engage this difficult subject matter on an emotional level. It’s remarkable storytelling. And, a perfect example of how/why there’s more to a book than simple surface narrative if we just look for it.

Referring to Pedro & Daniel as a debut novel suggests we should expect another one. And I am really looking forward to it.

There is a sequel – which didn’t start out as a sequel. I started writing this other story, again based on my own experiences. And at one point, I realized that this character is Pedro. So, it will basically be a work about Pedro without Daniel. But I use a lot of writing devices to bring Daniel back in many scenes. Some of it will be memory. Others will be Pedro’s autistic mind conversing with Daniel in other ways. Daniel’s presence will still be there. Though it’s a sequel, you won’t need to have read Pedro and Daniel first. 

Really looking forward to it. And thank you for your insightful and compassionate storytelling.

Federico Erebia’s adult fiction sequel to Pedro & Daniel that’s in the works is titled Pedro Without Daniel.  A prolific and insightful storyteller, he is also working on a series of short stories, a poetry collection, two graphic  novels, and four picture books.  We’re looking forward to seeing them all in the very near future.

And, be sure to see what the other authors in our Power of Books Series
have to say about the importance of books: 

Ryan Estrada,
author of Banned Book Club

Edward Underhill,
author of  Always the Almost,
and This Day Changes Everything

Dr. Michael Datcher,
author of Harlem at Four

Jamie Jo Hoang,
author of My Father the Panda Killer

And for all you educators out there, download this
Daniel & Pedro discussion guide.

#Power of Books Author Series        #Federico Erebia       #LGBTQ+ authors        #domestic abuse

Endnotes:

[1] Bruinius, Harry. “Banning Books: Protecting kids or erasing humanity?” October 6, 2023. The Christian Science Monitor.
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2023/1006/Banning-books-Protecting-kids-or-erasing-humanity

Rado, Diane. “In 2024, more censorship and bans: FL, TX removing large batches of books in public schools.” December 21, 2023. News From The States.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/2024-more-censorship-and-bans-fl-tx-removing-large-batches-books-public-schools

Unite Against Banned Books 2023 Censorship Numbers.

[2] https://fjebooks.com/pedro–daniel.html

[3] Understanding Colorism in Fiction with Federico Erebia.
https://bookishbrews.com/colorism-in-fiction-federico-erebia/

Images:

Power of Books: Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash    Edited: Added Power of Books Author Series text.

Federico Erebia: Joel Benjamin https://fjebooks.com/pedro–daniel.html

Cover of Pedro & Daniel

FYI:

This Book is Banned participates in the Amazon.com affiliate program, where we earn a small commission by linking to books (but the price remains the same to you).  This allows us to remain free, and ad free. [Our privacy policy]

M
alcolm X, needless to say, was a legendary civil rights activist and advocate for Black empowerment, one who continues to be widely celebrated for his pursuit of racial justice. His powerful speeches and fiery rhetoric challenged societal norms, which made him a controversial figure in the eyes of many white Americans – both during his lifetime and today.

His revolutionary ideas are espoused in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which is regarded as one of the most influential books in the U.S. In fact, it has been awarded a spot in the Library of Congress’ “Books that Shaped America” exhibit. As the name indicates, the LOC’s exhibit displays and highlights books that “have had a profound effect on American life” – many of which, like The Autobiography of Malcolm X, have unfortunately been banned.[1]

Malcolm X’s autobiography tells his life story in its entirety, from childhood memories of his mother to his involvement in organized crime and subsequent incarceration – during which he joined the Nation of Islam. It continues through his break with Elijah Muhammad and conversion to Sunni Islam, to his well-founded belief that “there are those watching every move I make, awaiting their chance to kill me.”[2]

Given the fact that his ideas challenged existing power structures, he was acutely aware of how the powerful elite would try to label him. Understandably, he saw his autobiography as a chance to shape the way he would be perceived in history.[3]

How was The Autobiography of Malcolm X originally received?

Upon its release a mere eight months after his assassination, New York Times reviewer Eliot Fremont-Smith described The Autobiography of Malcolm X as “a brilliant, painful, important book.”[4] And the public clearly agreed with that assessment, because more than 6 million copies of the book were sold by 1977. And it continues to inspire readers half a century later.

As historian Zaheer Ali notes, reading The Autobiography allowed people to explore Malcom X’s story on their own terms, rather than absorb the derision for Malcolm within the predominantly white press. And, the overall public mood toward Malcolm X did indeed take a positive turn after the book’s release.[5]

However, given Malcolm X’s unapologetic nature and the fact that his ideas challenged the status quo, it should come as no surprise that his autobiography was decried by some as a “guide to crime and chaos.”[6] Such characterizations continue to fuel the frequent bannings of this book.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a literary rarity.

Written in collaboration with Alex Haley, this book is a literary rarity…  an “autobiography” written by someone other than the subject.[7] How does that work, you ask? In short, Haley acted as a guide to navigating the storytelling process, but the words are all Malcolm’s.

It begins with Malcolm’s insistence:

Nothing can be in this book’s manuscript that I didn’t say, and nothing can be left out that I want in it. [8

Then there’s Malcolm’s penchant for directness…

I’m telling it like it is! You never have to worry about me biting my tongue if something I know as truth is on my mind.[9]

As well as his motivation for collaborating with Haley:

I have given to this book so much of whatever time I have because I feel, and I hope, that if I honestly and fully tell my life’s account, read objectively it might prove to be a testimony of some social value.[10]

And finally, the fact that both men agreed wholeheartedly on Malcolm’s passionate desire to historicize his own existence while simultaneously seeking to change American history.[11]

Who was The Autobiography of Malcolm X influenced by?

The Autobiography of Malcolm X has been compared to St. Augustine’s Confessions. In that they are both spiritual autobiographies, telling the story of a wayward young man who undergoes a religious conversion. As with Augustine, Malcolm’s project is the story of a sinner, one who finds God, transforms his life in this regard, and writes an autobiography as a guide that may lead others to spiritual transition.[12]

Given America’s history with race, we also see slave narrators like Frederick Douglass over Malcolm’s proverbial shoulder. Those who, like him, knew their narratives had to involve the secular enterprise of chronicling their search for earthly freedom and earthly power.[13]

So, Malcolm’s story is about both the spirit and the physical, about psychology as well as ideals. And, this blending of spiritual and social levels of experience is one of the defining achievements of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. As a unique blend of spiritual confession and oral social history, Malcolm X’s story becomes more than a simple testament of his lived experience. It’s also a polemic about the powerful elite, and ultimately a searingly honest baring of the inner self.[14]

Who did The Autobiography of Malcolm X influence?

The Autobiography of Malcolm X helped give voice to the emerging Black Power phase of the Black freedom movement. Black Power developed because for many African Americans it expressed what the mainstream civil rights movement did not – their frustration and anger with the intractability of racial injustice.

Ideas that Malcolm articulated, like self-respect, racial pride and self-determination, became philosophical mainstays of the Black Power movement.[15] According to African American Studies scholar Manning Marable, during the Black Power movement Malcolm X was quoted “with Talmudic-like authority,” and passages from The Autobiography were cited “chapter and verse.”[16]

Malcolm X’s autobiography resonated with young African Americans enrolling in historically white colleges and universities at greater rates as a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many of these students were not only seeking education, but an identity different from the one demeaning one historically decreed for them.[17] Marable describes The Autobiography of Malcolm X as being an “almost sacred text of Black identity.”[18]

Recorded and amplified by The Autobiography, Malcolm X’s voice spoke to black men languishing in prison as well, inspiring some to tell their own stories.  George Jackson’s Soledad Brother, for example, and Bobby Seale’s Seize the Time, Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice, as well as Poems from Prison by Etheridge Knight, to name a few.[19]

Malcolm X’s story was also relatable to Black Americans experiencing homelessness. As Margari Hill, co-founder and Executive Director of Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, observes:

He exemplified a way of being dignified without having to go through respectability politics. He showed you could still build and create a life for yourself.[20]

What describes Malcom X’s Communication Style?

Malcolm X communicated in a precise, direct manner, one consistent with Michel Foucault’s concept of parrhesia. In parrhesia, the speaker “uses the most direct words and forms of expression he can find” to express “as directly as possible what he actually believes.” And, he avoids the use of any rhetorical form that would veil what he thinks.[21]

The following sentiment from Malcolm X regarding communication between the races confirms his parrhessiatic style:

Raw, naked truth exchanged between the black man and the white man is what a whole lot more of is needed in this country—to clear the air of the racial mirages, clichés, and lies that this country’s very atmosphere has been filled with for four hundred years.[22]

Parrhesia also has an element of criticism to it, speaking truth to a powerful elite that does not wish to hear it.[23] Once again, consistent with this concept, Malcolm X spoke the uncomfortable truths no one else had the courage or integrity to broach.

The following reproach of governmental actions during the World War II era is clearly directed at America’s white population – many of whom justify the actions Malcom X is condemning to this day:

Where was the A-bomb dropped…“to save American lives”? Can the white man be so naive as to think the clear import of this ever will be lost upon the non-white two-thirds of the earth’s population?

Before that bomb was dropped—right over here in the United States, what about the one hundred thousand loyal naturalized and native-born Japanese American citizens who were herded into camps, behind barbed wire? But how many German-born naturalized Americans were herded behind barbed wire? They were white! [24]

As poet, playwright and activist Sonia Sanchez points out, Malcolm X said out loud and in public what African American people had been saying behind closed doors “forever.” And he did it in a way that says:

I am not afraid to say what you’ve been thinking all these years… That’s why we loved him. He said it out loud, not behind closed doors. He took on America for us.[25]

Sanchez sums it up by stating, “He expelled fear for African Americans.”[26] And in doing so, Malcolm X became a fearless, partisan, straight-talking hero.[27]

When you accept the parrheisiastic game,” as Foucault states in no uncertain terms, “you risk death to tell the truth instead of reposing in the security of a life where the truth goes unspoken.[28]

This is, of course, how Malcolm X ultimately lived his life. He accepted the risks that came with speaking clear, direct, and unwavering truth to power. And on February 21, 1965 he was silenced. But his ideas live on… The Autobiography of Malcolm X was released the following October. And, it remains an extremely influential piece of literature, one that continues to speak truth to a powerful elite. Perhaps that’s why there are so many attempts to ban it.

For all you educators, download this teaching guide to
The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

#banned biographies                    #banned books                  #civil rights movement

Endnotes:

[1] “Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)”
Books That Shaped America 1950 to 2000. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/books-that-shaped-america/1950-to-2000.html#:~:text=Malcolm%20X%20and%20Alex%20Haley,become%20a%20classic%20American%20autobiography.

[2] Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1992. Pg 401.

[3] “Malcolm X: Make it Plain.” PBS American Experience. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/malcolmx-autobiography-malcolm-x/

[4] Fremont-Smith, Eliot. The New York Times, November 5, 1965.

[5] Gandhi, Lakshmi. “55 years later, ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ still inspires.” Sept. 10, 2020. NBCnews.com https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/55-years-later-autobiography-malcolm-x-still-inspires-n1239797

[6] “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” The Censorship Files: A Study of Texts, Images, and Information. November 15, 2016.

[7] “Malcolm X: Make it Plain.” PBS American Experience. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/malcolmx-autobiography-malcolm-x/

[8] Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1992. Pg 408.

[9] Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1992. Pg 399.

[10] Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1992. Pg 289.

[11]Stone, Albert (1982). Autobiographical Occasions and Original Acts: Versions of American Identity from Henry Adams to Nate Shaw (Paperback ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pg 249.

[12] Rampersad, Arnold. “The Color of His Eyes.” In Malcolm X: in our own image. Edited by Joe Wood. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. Pg 120.

[13] Rampersad, Arnold. “The Color of His Eyes.” In Malcolm X: in our own image. Edited by Joe Wood. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. Pg 120.

[14] Rampersad, Arnold. “The Color of His Eyes.” In Malcolm X: in our own image. Edited by Joe Wood. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. Pg 120.
Stone, Albert (1982). Autobiographical Occasions and Original Acts: Versions of American Identity from Henry Adams to Nate Shaw (Paperback ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pg 250.

[15] “The Foundations of Black Power.” National Museum of African American History & Culture.
“Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)” Books That Shaped America 1950 to 2000. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/books-that-shaped-america/1950-to-2000.html#:~:text=Malcolm%20X%20and%20Alex%20Haley,become%20a%20classic%20American%20autobiography

[16] Marable, Manning. “Rediscovering Malcolm’s Life: A Historian’s Adventures in Living History.” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society. Vol. 7 Issue 1, 2005. Pp 20-35.

[17] “A Literary History of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Harvard University Press Blog. April 20, 1012.
https://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2012/04/a-literary-history-of-the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x.html

[18] Marable, Manning. “Rediscovering Malcolm’s Life: A Historian’s Adventures in Living History.” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society. Vol. 7 Issue 1, 2005. Pp 20-35.

[19] “A Literary History of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Harvard University Press Blog. April 20, 1012.
https://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2012/04/a-literary-history-of-the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x.html

[20] Gandhi, Lakshmi. “55 years later, ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ still inspires.” Sept. 10, 2020. NBCnews.com https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/55-years-later-autobiography-malcolm-x-still-inspires-n1239797

[21] Foucault, Michel. The Meaning and Evolution of the Word Parrhesia in Discourse & Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia, 1999. https://foucault.info/parrhesia/foucault.DT1.wordParrhesia.en/

[22] Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1992. Pg 289.

[23] Foucault, Michel. The Meaning and Evolution of the Word Parrhesia in Discourse & Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia, 1999. https://foucault.info/parrhesia/foucault.DT1.wordParrhesia.en/

[24] Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X.  New York: The Random House Publishing Group, 1992. Pg 284.

[25] Sonia Sanchez. “Eyes on the Prize II Interview.” Blackside, Inc. Washington University in St. Louis. http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/videos/rn301512c

[26] Sonia Sanchez. “Eyes on the Prize II Interview.” Blackside, Inc. Washington University in St. Louis. http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/videos/rn301512c

[27] Stone, Albert (1982). Autobiographical Occasions and Original Acts: Versions of American Identity from Henry Adams to Nate Shaw (Paperback ed.). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pg 250-251.

[28] Foucault, Michel. The Meaning and Evolution of the Word Parrhesia in Discourse & Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia, 1999. https://foucault.info/parrhesia/foucault.DT1.wordParrhesia.en/

Images:

1st edition cover of The Autobiography of Malcolm X: public domain via Wikipedia

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a literary rarity: Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

Who was The Autobiography of Malcolm X influenced by: photo of Frederick Douglass – public domain via Wikimedia commons

Who did The Autobiography of Malcolm X influence: Fenton, David. “The Foundations of Black Power.”
September 1970. National Museum of African American  History & Culture.

Malcolm X’s communication style:
Parks, Gordon. “Malcolm X Gives Speech at Rally, Harlem, New York from the portfolio IAM YOU, 1963. Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

FYI:

This Book is Banned participates in the Amazon.com affiliate program, where we earn a small commission by linking to books (but the price remains the same to you).  This allows us to remain free, and ad free. [Our privacy policy]